Ovens Work - Whirlpool MW8100XL-1 Use & Care Manual

HOW MICROWAVE 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.
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.
Mode Mixer Magnetron
Oven Cavity
A magnetron in the micro-
wave oven produces
microwaves. The microwaves
move into the oven where
they are scattered or stirred
by a mode mixer(like a fan).
Microwaves bounce off
metal oven walls and are
absorbed by food.
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.
Ceramic Bottom
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Metal Floor
The ceramic bottom of your
microwave oven lets micro-
waves through. Then they
bounce off a metal floor,
back through the ceramic
bottom 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.