Is it true that microwaves cause cancer?
It is very unlikely that microwaves cause cancer. Microwaves are not ionizing radiation--they don't directly damage chemical bonds.
What metals and other substances are used in microwave ovens?
The walls of a microwave oven's cooking chamber are made of highly conductive metals so that they reflect the microwaves almost completely.
What is the black screen for on the door of the microwave for?
The reason for the black screen in the door is to stop microwaves from hitting you, because the holes in the screen are smaller than the wavelength of a microwave. Therefore they bounce off as if it were a solid metal
Is it possible to eat a microwave while you eat food that was cooked in the microwave oven?
Not one that came from the microwave oven. Microwaves are all around us and are completely innocuous. Your body emits weak microwaves all the time, as part of its thermal radiation! Like light, microwaves don't remain still in objects so you can't eat one that was put in the food by the oven.
Don't microwaves penetrate metal at all?
If the metal is a good conductor, then the microwaves don't penetrate more than a fraction of a millimeter. That's because the microwave electric fields push on the metal's mobile electrons and those electrons immediately rearrange in such a way that they cancel the microwave fields inside the metal. Only the skin of the metal responds to the fields and it shields the rest of the metal from the microwaves.
Why do metal objects spark/arc in the microwave? Why don't the metal walls of the microwave spark?
Like all electromagnetic waves, microwaves are composed of electric and magnetic fields. Since an electric field exerts forces on charged particles, a microwave pushes electrons back and forth through any metals it encounters. It is this motion of electrons back and forth through the metal walls of the microwave oven that allow that metal to reflect the microwaves and keep them inside the oven. If you leave a spoon in you cup of coffee as you heat it in the microwave, electrons will move back and forth through the spoon. This motion of charge will cause no problems so long as (1) the spoon can tolerate this flow of charge without overheating and (2) the spoon doesn't allow the charges at its ends to leap into the air as a spark. To keep the spoon from overheating, it must be a good conductor of electricity. Since most spoons are pretty thick, the modest currents flowing through them in the microwave will leave little energy inside them and they won't overheat. But a thin twist-tie or small bit of aluminum foil may well overheat and begin to burn. To keep the spoon from sparking, it should have smooth ends. Electrons are more likely to leave the end of a metal surface at a sharp point, so avoiding points is important. Most spoons are smooth enough that no sparks will occur. But a fork, a sharp piece of foil, or a twist-tie may well begin to emit electrons into the air as those electrons pile up at one end of the wire while the microwave oven is on. Like a spoon, the walls of the oven are good conductors of electricity and they have no sharp points. While electrons move back and forth in these walls, they simply reflect the microwaves without becoming very hot and without emitting any sparks. You'll note that the light bulb for the microwave is always outside the cooking chamber because it contains small bits of metal that would have trouble inside a microwave oven.
Can plastic melt in a microwave oven? How does this process work? Can plastic burn in a microwave oven?
Most plastics are unaffected by microwaves and do nothing at all in a microwave oven. For them to absorb energy from the microwaves, the plastics must either conduct electricity or their molecules must undergo the twisting motions that water molecules experience in the microwave oven. There are a few conducting plastics and these may melt or burn in a microwave as the microwave electric fields propel electric currents through them. There are also some plastics that trap water molecules and these may also melt or burn as the water molecules gather energy from the microwaves. I suppose that there are also a few plastics that have polar molecules in them that respond to the microwaves the way water does. However, most plastics do none of these and only melt or burn if they accidentally come in contact with very hot food or pieces of metal that happen to be in the microwave oven.
Can we add a section to a microwave oven that gets the food or drinks cold?
Not without adding a full-blown refrigerator. While it's relatively easy to add thermal energy to food or drink, it's much harder to remove that thermal energy. Since energy is conserved, the thermal energy that you remove from the food must be transferred elsewhere. Since heat (moving thermal energy) normally flows from a hotter object to a colder object, you must make something colder than the food before the heat will leave the food. While it's possible to cool an object to a temperature lower than its surroundings, this cooling process requires a heat pump, a device that actively pumps heat from a cold object to a hot object (against its natural direction of flow). A refrigerator is such a heat pump.
Why are you required to have an item in the microwave oven while it is operating?
When a microwave oven is cooking food, electrons move rhythmically back and forth inside the magnetron tube and create the microwaves. These microwaves flow through a metal pipe and into the cooking chamber, where they are absorbed by the water in the food and thus heat the food (the twisting back and forth of the water molecules, described elsewhere on this page, not only heats the food--it also absorbs the microwaves). If there is no food in the cooking chamber, the microwaves build up in the cooking chamber until they are so intense that large numbers of them flow backward through the pipe to the magnetron. These microwaves reenter the magnetron and disrupt the motion of electrons inside it. The magnetron begins to misbehave and can be damaged as a result. To avoid such damage, you want to be sure that there is something in the cooking chamber to absorb the microwaves before they return to the magnetron and cause trouble. In short, don't run the microwave empty for any long periods of time.
What exactly goes on when you're cooking a potato in the microwave and it explodes?
A microwave oven heats food by depositing energy in its water. If you cook the food long enough, that water can begin to boil. If the food has a hard outer shell (e.g. a potato or a corn kernel), the boiling water can create enough pressure in the food to make it explode. That is what pops the corn in microwave pop-corn and why the potato explodes if you don't pierce it so that steam can escape.