electrons flowing at any moment is
somewhat smaller than in your house
Dear Bill,
How does a microwave oven work? Why
does the food get hot, but not the air
around it?
-- Microwavin' Maven
Dear Maven,
Microwaves affect molecules that have
slight differences in their electric properties
from one side of the molecule to the other.
Water is just such a molecule. Microwaves
cause liquid water molecules to rub against
one another and heat up. So your microwave
oven is able to heat food by causing the
water molecules in the food to rub against
each other. When the water molecules are a
gas (when they're water vapor) they're too
far apart to rub against each other to heat up
much--that's why the air stays relatively
cool.
How microwaves work
Microwave ovens use two invisible force
fields working across one another to convert
the flow of electrons in wires--electricity--
into the flow of electromagnetic waves
through air--microwaves. A circuit in the
oven stores electricity in such a way that its
voltage gets much higher than it is in your
house's wiring, while the number of
wiring.
These flowing electrons are directed into a
small metal wire that acts very much like a
tiny antenna. Around the wire is a metal
ring. The wire and the ring are connected to
the same electric circuit, so there's an
electric field between them. It's like a force
field in a science-fiction movie, only real.
Another example is lightning, which jumps
to Earth under the influence of an "electric
force field."
Electrons would be forced to
zip out straight from the wire to the ring,
following paths like the spokes of a wagon
wheel. But they don't, because the whole
assembly is packed between two strong
magnets. The magnets set up another type of
field--a magnetic field. Now, a fundamental
feature of the universe makes electrons
create magnetic fields of their own, when
they're in motion.
You may know from experience that one
magnet can push or pull on another magnet--
the same goes for magnetic fields. Under the
influence of the electric and magnetic fields,
instead of going straight, the electrons take
curved paths. When the wire, the ring, the
voltage, and magnetic fields are configured
just right, the whole assembly becomes a
miniature broadcasting antenna, and it
radiates microwaves.
These assemblies, which can fit in the palm
of your hand, are called magnetrons. They
are often called cross-field devices, because
they use an electrical field that crosses a
magnetic field. One very good way to think
of electromagnetic energy is as a wave or set
of waves zooming through empty space or
the low-density spaces between and within
molecules.
How heat works
Microwaves are electromagnetic energy. So
is light, so is heat, and so are computer
signals. The difference between these
seemingly very different kinds of energy is
not their speed (they're all going the speed
of light); it's their respective wavelengths.
Light waves are a few hundred billionths of
a meter long. Green light's wavelength is
about 550 nanometers (0.000000550 meters)
long. Heat's wavelength is about twice that,
around 1,000 nanometers. We have, of
course, another name for heat--infrared,
which means below red. It's designated
"below" because as the wavelength goes up,
the frequency goes down. Infrared energy
makes molecules move faster. The kinetic or
"moving" energy of molecules is actually a
definition of temperature. More kinetic
energy means more molecular motion and a
hotter temperature.
Microwaves are much, much longer than
heat waves. Microwaves are about 12
centimeters long. That would be 12 million
nanometers. When these waves pass through
some materials they set these substances
tumbling--on the molecular level. That
motion becomes heat. Liquid water is just
such a substance. It's H2O, and its molecules
are almost lined up: H-O-H. But, although
they're symmetrical, the molecules are bent
in the middle.
Chemists say the water molecule is polar. It
has electromagnetic poles, just like Earth's
north and south. But of course, water
molecules are somewhat diminutive in
comparison--about a billion, billion times
smaller. The top of the molecule (as
pictured) has a slightly positive charge
compared with the bottom, which carries a
relatively negative charge. As microwaves
move through liquid water, the
electromagnetic waves slightly attract then
slightly repel the H2O molecules, and things
heat up.
Why popcorn pops
This polarity is what makes popcorn pop.
Popcorn kernels carry just the right amount
of water inside--around 14 percent of a
properly dried popcorn kernel is liquid
water. So when microwaves pass through a
kernel, the water turns to steam and blows
the kernel inside out.
In the air of a microwave oven, we don't
have liquid water. We have water vapor.
With the molecules much, much farther
apart, the gentle tumbling brought on by the
microwave energy doesn't cause them to rub
on each other the way they do when they're
a liquid. So the air in a microwave oven
hardly heats up at all. But foods and
materials with polar molecules do. When the
microwave magnetron is on, it's a molecular
tumble-thon.