The microwave oven is one of the great inventions of the 20th century - millions of homes in America have one. Microwave ovens are popular because they cook food incredibly quickly. They are also extremely efficient in their use of electricity because a microwave oven heats only the food - nothing else. A microwave oven uses microwaves to heat food.
Microwaves are radio waves .
When they are absorbed they are converted directly into atomic motion - heat. Metal reflects microwaves, which is why metal pans do not work well in a microwave oven. Here's an explanation to help make sense of microwave cooking. Let's say you want to bake a cake in a conventional oven. Normally you would bake a cake at 350 degrees F or so, but let's say you accidentally set the oven at 600 degrees instead of 350.