How do microwave ovens ACTUALLY work?
My textbook says that in microwave ovens, the frequency of the microwaves produced matches the natural frequebcy of water. Therefore, food containing water will heat up. But sites I have found on the net say a variety of other things. Such as ‘It’s a common misconception that the microwaves in a microwave oven excite a natural resonance in water. The frequency of a microwave oven is well below any natural resonance in an isolated water molecule, and in liquid water those resonances are so smeared out that they’re barely noticeable anyway. It’s kind of like playing a violin under water–the strings won’t emit well-defined tones in water because the water impedes their vibrations. Similarly, water molecules don’t emit (or absorb) well-defined tones in liquid water because their clinging neighbors impede their vibrations. Instead of trying to interact through a natural resonance in water, a microwave oven just exposes the water molecules to the intense electromagnetic fields in strong, no
