Microwave oven

An appliance that heats food by directing microwave radiation into a cooking cavity. Its electric field causes polar molecules and ions in food to move, producing heat.

Magnetron: A vacuum tube that generates microwaves by moving electrons through crossed electric and magnetic fields. It is the conventional source of microwave radiation in household ovens.
Microwave: Electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths between radio waves and infrared radiation. Microwave ovens use this part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Microwave popcorn: Popcorn packaged with a susceptor and designed to pop when heated in a microwave oven. Its packaging concentrates heat to help pop kernels more reliably.
Conventional oven: An enclosed appliance that cooks food mainly by hot air, radiant heat, or both. It heats food chiefly from the surface inward, unlike microwave energy absorption.
Dielectric heating: Heating caused when an alternating electric field makes polar molecules and charged particles move and dissipate energy. It explains how the oven’s field transfers energy into food.
Water molecule: A bent polar molecule composed of two hydrogen atoms bonded to one oxygen atom. Its electric dipole responds to the oven’s alternating field.
Microwave drying: A process that removes moisture from materials using energy absorbed from microwave fields. The same energy transfer used in cooking can rapidly dry suitable materials.
Induction cooking: A cooking method that heats suitable cookware using electromagnetic induction. It uses an electromagnetic field but heats the pan rather than directly heating food.
Microwave cavity: A conductive enclosure that confines and reflects microwave radiation at selected resonant frequencies. The cooking chamber shapes the field patterns that reach the food.
Permittivity: A measure of how a material responds to an applied electric field. Food composition and permittivity affect microwave absorption and heating depth.

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