Whirlpool RM988PXK Use & Care Manual page 21

HOW MICR- OVENS WORK
Microwave ovens are safe. Microwave energy is not hot. It causes food to
make its own heat, and it's this heat that cooks the food.
Microwaves are like TV
waves or light waves. you
can't see them, but you can
see what they do.
Stirrer
Magnetron Glass Shelf
Oven-Cavity
A magnetron produces
microwaves. The microwaves
move into the oven where
they are scattered around by
a stirrer (like a fan).
Microwaves bounce off
metal oven walls and are
absorbed by food.
Microwaves pass through
glass, paper and plastic
without heating them so food
absorbs the energy. Micro-
waves bounce off metal pans
so food does not absorb the
energy.
Microwaves may not reach
the center of a roast. The heat
around the outside is what
cooks the roast all the way
through. This is one of the
reasons for letting some
foods (roasts, baked pota-
toes] stand for a while after
cooking, or for stirring some
foods during the cooking
time.
Metal Bottom
The glass bottom of your
microwave oven lets micro-
waves through. Then they
bounce off a metal floor,
back through the glass bot-
tom and are absorbed by the
food.
The microwaves disturb
water molecules in the food.
As the molecules bounce
around bumping into each
other, heat is made, like rub-
bing your hands together.
This is the heat that cooks.
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