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How a microwave oven heats food, and why the middle stays cold

The waves inside a microwave oven never reach the middle of a thick dish. They fade a few centimetres in, which is why your leftovers can bubble at the edge and stay cold in the middle. See how the magnetron makes the water in food turn billions of times a second, why microwaves do not cook from the inside out, why ice barely warms and what defrost does, how a chocolate bar shows the hot spots that make the plate turn, and why microwaved food never becomes radioactive.