Are microwaves distributed unevenly in the oven? Why do manufacturers claim that microwaves with turntables are more effective than microwaves without turntables?
As the microwaves bounce around the inside of the cooking chamber, they tend to interfere with one another. There are usually regions in which the waves that follow various paths almost cancel one another and regions in which the waves reinforce one another. These regions don’t cook food equally well. If the microwaves are canceled in one region, cooking will be slow there. If the microwaves reinforce one another in another region, cooking will be fast there. If you simply leave food in one place and try to cook it in the microwaves, the cooking will be uneven. However, if the food is rotated continuously, these good and bad cooking regions will be blurred away so that the food will all cook at about the same speed.