Why is it if I microwave one frozen burrito at the recommended time it heats up normally, but when I microwave two of them it doesn’t heat the same? And takes longer?
In: 3
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_of_energy
The microwaves don’t just spontaneously create heat energy in the burrito. The microwave energy is being *transformed* into heat. Twice the burritos means twice the energy needed.
(This is a simplification, so just doubling the time probably won’t work.)
Microwaves emit rays that causes water molecules to vibrate. This vibration is what heats up the food. Twice as much food, means twice as much burrito to shake up. I believe frozen food is also harder to shake due to frozen water being harder to vibrate
For the exact same reason it would take longer to heat up a burrito that is twice the size, there is more stuff that needs to be heated, but the same amount of power going into the heating, so it takes longer for that same amount of power to heat up twice as much stuff
The microwave creates microwaves of energy that the food absorbs.
More stuff being heated up means less microwaves getting into each item.
For a full sized oven the ratio in size of the item to the “container” is larger so it’s not a big deal, but if you crowd your oven (say 4 trays of food on 2 racks) then it can take longer.
Microwaves are absorbed by water molecules. The water molecules then heat up, which is what reheats your food (also explains why microwaves can’t be used to cook something like a roast dinner particularly well).
By adding a second burrito you’ve put more water molecules in there so each one will absorb fewer microwaves, and thus heat up less, than if there was only one in the oven.
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