Practically in all residences there is the famous microwave oven. Simple and practical, it helps in the preparation and heating of food, often saving feed from those who do not venture into the conventional stove. But although it is so common and practical, how does the microwave oven work?

The history of the microwave

In fact, microwaves are high frequency electromagnetic waves, just like radio waves. In 1945, the American engineer Percy Spencer was working on the construction of magnetrons (pieces capable of generating electromagnetic waves). It was then that he realized that a bar of chocolate that was in his pocket had melted. Spencer soon realized that microwaves were capable of heating food and glimpsed the culinary possibilities of this generator. Thus arose in the early 50s, the first microwave oven.

How does it work?

The microwave oven operates at a frequency of 2,450 gigahertz, the same resonant frequency as water molecules. In this way, radiation excites asymmetric molecules, such as water, oils and sugar. Therefore, when the oven is used these waves are reflected several times in the metallic walls on the food, causing an increase in the internal energy of these molecules and, consequently, in the temperature.

The microwaves have a high penetration capacity in the food, which allows cooking from the inside and not from the surface, as it happens in conventional ovens. However, they don’t vibrate the glass or plastic molecules, which are mostly formed by molecules of extremely symmetrical structure. So the heating of these materials is very small in the oven. But when they are with some food, what happens is that the contact of the food directly with the dish ends up causing such heating.

Now that you know how the microwave oven works, how about heating up a snack and checking out other blog posts?