Why do microwaves count backwards?

Answer 1

So you know how much cooking time is left without having to do any math.

Picture setting your oven for 3 1/2 minutes. Then, looking at it later and seeing it reading

57. If the oven is counting down, (backwards) it means that there are 57 seconds of

cook time remaining. If the oven counted up, you would have to figure out that you had

two minutes and 33 seconds of cook time left. It's just easier and makes more sense

for the timers to count down.