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Microwaves have become a ubiquitous appliance in the American kitchen. We use them to heat up last night's dinner, pop some corn, or defrost a T-bone. Despite the fact that millions of people eat "microwaved" food every day, very few know how the process actually works. Marshall Brain's How Stuff Works provided an informative explanation of the microwave oven. A microwave oven uses radio waves, usually in the 2,500 frequency range, to cook food. At that frequency, the waves are absorbed by water, fats, and sugars. When that happens, they are converted directly into atomic motion -- in other words, heat. When you cook something in the microwave, the radio waves penetrate the
food and "excite water and fat molecules." The heat is everywhere at the same time, and the food is heated fairly evenly. When you use a conventional oven, the heat is conducted from the outside of the food to the inside, so the outside may be hot while the inside is still stone cold. The invention of the microwave oven happened as many inventions do -- by accident. According to the Idea Finder site, two British scientists invented the magnetron, a tube that produces microwaves. Magnetrons were installed in Britain¿s radar system during World War II to help spot Nazi warplanes headed to the British Isles. Percy LeBaron Spencer of the Raytheon Company discovered that microwaves could be used to cook food quite by
accident. A candy bar in his pocket melted when he was around the radar waves. Subsequent research showed that microwaves could rapidly increase the internal temperature of food, much faster than conventional ovens. Soon thereafter, Amana Radaranges were being sold as kitchen appliances. Now if we could just figure out how to cook microwave popcorn without burning half the kernels in the bag...
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