:: stamford research

The latest myth going around is that microwave ovens destroy the nutritional value of food, make the food cause cancer and are dangerous. The fact is, they're not. Microwave ovens are perfectly safe. One of the first microwave ovens was made by Amana and was called the Radar Range. Why? Because your microwave oven, the police radar on the street, the radar that changes traffic lights from red to green based on traffic flow, the radar used on boats and ships, and your microwave oven all work on the same principle!

What are microwaves? Visible light shows up as waves, like waves in the ocean, of photons. The wave are between 380 nanometerd (nm) for violet light to 750 nm for red light. Microwaves are even shorter, shorter than the 380 nm for violet light. But they're basically the same time!

How did your microwave oven works? Basically, when microwaves hit water, they heat the water up. If you put a lot of microwaves into a little bit of water, the water gets hot. When you put food in the microwave, the oven heats up the water and the food to the boiling point in the boiling water cooks the food from the inside. That's why they're fast. In a regular oven on air blows over the food and heats up the outside, taking a very long time to finally heed of the inside. Microwaves don't. All the water boils at the same time, so it's really fast.

Can microwaves be dangerous? Well, yes, I guess, if you stick your hand in there while it's on. But you can't. Opening the door turns the microwave off instantly. And if you look at the front of the microwave oven you'll notice that the glass has a grid of little round circles. The circles are smaller than the wavelength, preventing the microwaves from escaping. You're not going to cook yourself!