Why plates get too hot to touch in the mircrowave but the food can still be cold?
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Microwaves heat food by causing the water molecules in the food to become excited, thus banging into each other. That creates friction, which creates heat.
Objects heat up through the input of energy. Heat doesn’t absorb cold, rather cold absorbs heat. Plates are typically made of some kind of stoneware, e.g. ceramic, which is clay.
Side note: Corelle dishes manufactured by Corning are glass and do not heat up on the microwave. I use Corelle for this reason.
The cold stoneware absorbs heat energy from the food. Because the food is losing heat to the plate it remains cooler. The water molecules continue to produce heat through friction that the plate continues to absorb.
I would imagine if the food were heated long enough to the point all of the water had evaporated the plate and the food would reach equilibrium. However, the food would long since become inedible if not combusted.
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