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How Microwaves Cook Food. When you hit the start button it usually takes about 2 seconds to heat up a filament inside the magnetron tube, says Schiffmann. The microwaves are then blasted into the food compartment. The commonly used frequency of microwaves, 2.45 gigahertz, is easily absorbed by water, fat, and sugar.
Microwave ovens use radio waves at a specifically set frequency to agitate water molecules in food. As these water molecules get increasingly agitated they begin to vibrate at the atomic level and generate heat. This heat is what actually cooks food in the oven. Because all particles in the food are vibrating and generating heat at the same time, food cooked in the microwave cooks much more swiftly than food cooked in a conventional oven where heat must slowly travel from the outside surface of the food inward.