Zahra Cooks

My sister, Sara, asked for microwave meal recipes so I’ve been doing just that over in the cooking section. But have you ever wondered about these wonderful machines?

After a Google search of microwaves and how they came about, I learned some things! Here’s what I learned:

-The microwave was “invented” by a Raytheon Corporation engineer named Percy Spencer in 1946 when the candy bar in his pocket melted as he experimented with a magnetron tube. (I read that this kind of tube forms microwaves!) He also made the first microwave popcorn when he placed some kernals of corn next to the magnetron tube.

-Microwaves warm up food by making the molecules in the food vibrate at super speeds. The microwaves are then absorbed by the food, but they do not make the food radioactive because they turn into heat the minute they are absorbed by food.

- Oils such as olive oil do not heat well in microwaves because their molecules lack the polarity found in water. It’s also true that frozen butter is hard to thaw in a microwave, because the bulk of the substance is oil, and the portion of water present is in the form of ice, which keeps the molecules locked up in crystal form, making oscillation more difficult.

- Heating plastics in a microwave can be dangerous! When the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel tested plastics labeled “microwave-safe”  and advertised for infants, even those were found to release “toxic doses” of Bisphenol A when heated in a microwave. “The amounts detected were at levels that scientists have found cause neurological and developmental damage in laboratory animals,” the paper reports.

- As much as 80% of microwaves from mobile phones are absorbed by your head. Don’t worry though, the levels aren’t nearly high enough to cook your brains.

Are you oh so smarticle now?!

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