Fun with Microwaves!

So microwaves rely on work, not heat to warm our meals. Heat was previously defined to be the flow of energy due to a difference in temperature, and I should add that this flow occurs spontaneously. This already seems to indicate that microwaving food does not involve heat- microwave pizza does not instantaneously become ready to eat. Additionally, heat relies on the notion of thermal equilibrium (two systems reaching the same temperature) to determine when energy is exchanged. Does your microwave reach the same temperature as the food you are heating? I hope not.

Microwave (ovens) use radiation to heat food. Electromagnetic radiation, to be more precise, whose waves fall in the "microwave" category in terms of frequency and wavelength. This radiation excites the atoms in your food, essentially making them jiggle and feel warmer to our tongues. I have implicitly related to temperature to jiggling of atoms, which is somewhat of an oversimplification but valid at this stage. This process can be considered work because it involves forces and displacement of atoms, albeit on an extremely tiny scale. Therefore, in accordance with out previous definition of work, microwave ovens use work to increase the internal energy of food.

If the aforementioned statements were entirely correct, then physics wouldn't be physics. Explanations always rely on particular perspectives on situations, whether microscopic, macroscopic, or otherwise. The increase of internal energy (like that caused by a microwave) is also due to another phenomenon that is actually the subject of this song:

I in no way own the aforementioned video or its contents. It is entirely the property of the band Muse.