Principle behind the microwave oven
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Principle behind the microwave oven

Food is the elixir of life. Therefore, care should be taken to have hygienic and non-toxic food. The microwave oven is there for that purpose. It is a kitchen appliance that cooks food using microwaves in the electromagnetic spectrum. For shorter wavelengths, there will be more energy in the microwaves. This energy in the microwaves is enough to make the organic molecules in the food vibrate and therefore produce heat. Microwaves vibrate approximately 2.5 billion times per second. Microwave ovens heat food without affecting the container. Containers made of plastic, paper, glass, ceramic can be used for cooking in microwave ovens, since they are impervious to microwaves and allow waves to pass through them.

These waves are reflected in the metal facades. Because of this, the microwave oven has a metal lining on the inside to reflect the microwaves produced by the magnetron to pass through the food over and over again. Ceramic cookware is largely preferable. Cookware must be kept open.

The microwave oven requires high voltage transformers to supply current to the magnetron, which in turn ignites the electrons to produce microwaves of the desired frequency, inside the oven. There will be a microcontroller and a cooking chamber to facilitate cooking.

Despite having microwave ovens in your kitchens, many of you may not know how it works.

It begins its work by passing microwave radiation, which is not ionizable, through the food at a frequency of 2.45 GHz. These microwaves are generated by the magnetron, the electron tube inside the oven. By means of dielectric heating, water, sugar, fats, etc. in food absorb energy from radiation. Since microwave ovens use non-ionizable radiation, there will be no risk of cancer. It is said that heat is the movement of molecules. Many polarized molecules in food such as water have both positive and negative charges.

Based on the alternating electric field produced by microwaves, the charges tend to align, which leads to the movement of molecules whose collision generates heat. This heat cooks the food. Since microwave energy is immediately converted to heat, there is no radioactive damage to cooked food. Foods with more water content cook against the clock compared to those with less water. This technique causes the outer layers to heat up first, and from there the heat is conducted to the inner layers.

The intensity of microwave penetration depends on the frequency and composition of the food. The lower the frequency, the higher the penetration rate.

In conservative ovens, cooked food and cooking utensils will be at the same temperature that is not seen in the case of microwave ovens. Here, the cookware will be colder than the food, because the microwaves penetrate the cookware and heat the food first, and from there, the cookware is heated indirectly. The microwave oven uses less energy than conventional ovens, since it only cooks the food faster but not the kitchen utensils. These ovens do not reduce the nutritional value of the food, since it cooks more quickly.

Because it depends on the amount of water used, steaming vegetables in the microwave retains 77% of the nutrients, compared to heating them on the stove.

Microwave ovens are used in restaurants, homes, and industries as they are efficient in terms of energy and time, which supports good quality. These microwave ovens are typically used to prepare food and reheat old things in just a few minutes. Microwave ovens have some limitations, as they are not suitable for reactions for flavor enhancement, browning, etc. Sometimes bacterial destruction is not possible if the proper temperature is not reached. This can lead to disease. Apart from these limitations, the role that the microwave oven plays in everyday life is very appreciable.

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