In microwave ovens what matters is how much energy the radiation carries and how that energy is absorbed by the food. Visible light and IR are rapidly absorbed by most foods, so they would only heat the outer layer of the food. You'd get food with the outside carbonised and the inside raw. Micro...

Microwave heating is largely caused by the changing electric and magnetic fields (i.e. the "microwaves") which are emitted by your microwave oven affecting polar molecules. As the direction of the electric field changes over time, the polar molecules (often, of water) attempt to follow the field ...

The microwaves are primarily designed to vibrate/heat the water molecules in the food, as a way of ensuring that the foods gets cooked evenly. An aid to this process is the rotating plate within the machine. Microwaves that cook your food pass through plastics, glass, and ceramics, with mimima...

"Newton rings" in thin plates were discovered not by Newton but by Hooke, and not in 1717 but in 1664 (Boyle described a similar phenomenon in soap bubbles at about the same time). Hooke reported his experiments in Micrographia (1665), from which Newton learned about them, "in which book he hath ...