Fun With Microwaves 2

[ChiUnit4evr]

retry the grapes.

You cut them too far down the middle. I'm pretty sure you want to leave a fair bit attached so that it doesn't immediately fall apart.

Also I wonder what happens if you microwave a banana unpeeled?

[Casandro]

Well first of all, the water acts as a damper for the microwaves. Without it more of the wave going out of the magnetron would come back, which might reduce the power of the magnetron, or even harm it.

The grapes work because they form a quite good half-wave dipole. So in between the grapes you have the highest voltage.

What you might do to make it more unique and exiting would be to put a camera _into_ the oven. For this you would need a few ultra-cheap (e.g. <10$) television cameras which you would have to put into tin cans with only a small pinhole for the lens, as well as another one for a shielded cable. Then you get the signal to an ultra cheap VCR.
Of course there is a chance of microwave leakage, but maybe you can borrow a measurement device, for example from the company Gigahertz-Solutions.

[Yukikaze]

I considered the possibility of a ($20-30) wireless webcam.

On the one hand, a Faraday cage might keep your camera protected from the microwaves. On the other hand, it'll also prevent it from broadcasting.

[Maximillian]

A cell phone would definitely be interesting. I have a few ancient ones, but sending them to BC would be kinda expensive given my location.

[Corvis29]

Comedic gold! I was waiting for a normal shirt to go in the microwave and come out a LRR shirt for an ad or something, but alas.

HAHA that would have been awesome

3 words Tin Foil Man....

or maybe some sort of Cubecraft thing made out of tin foil instead of paper

[tamaness]

For the record, CDs work without the water. DVDs aren't as impressive either way.

things to try:

-Magnets (high-power or rare earth)
-light a match standing up (soda bottle cap works), cover it with a glass dome (I heard it has to be spherical), leaving an air gap, and start the microwave.
-silicon wafer (doubt you'll find one cheap, but it's worth a shot)
-iPod (touch, preferably)
-moar LCDs (that was awesome.)
-ping-pong ball. SRSLY!

a couple lists from googling list of things to microwave
http://chemistry.about.com/b/2009/02/08 ... e-list.htm
http://www.associatedcontent.com/articl ... owave.html

There are some interesting parallels between those two articles.[/url]

[wedrinkritalin]

That was neato, but seemed a bit short, like someone said it felt more like fun with microwaves 1.1 then 2

I'd say 1.5.

Well, if people have something they'd like to see, I think we can always bring the pain with another one. Let us know what else we should micro-wreck.

......light tube

[wilson_x1999]

Wow, you learn something new everyday, who knew that:

broken LCD + Microwave = Instant Rave

[kramerr]

I've got some laser disks. They are giant CD like objects that made a failed run at replacing VHS tapes during the 80's. If I send you some will you microwave them?

[Graham]

I've got some laser disks. They are giant CD like objects that made a failed run at replacing VHS tapes during the 80's. If I send you some will you microwave them?

YES.
Yes we will.

I never thought of microwaving a LaserDisc. That's a brilliant idea.

[Evil Jim]

I think most of us know what Laserdiscs are. But considering they're not likely to go into production again you may want to hang on to them. Currently they are between the phases of "new" & "collectible" so it's common to think of them as useless or disposable, but later on you may wish they had stayed out of the microwave. See: Trough of no-value

[zico]

Somehow a bit... well... not much too new here. I have to agree it was just a bit more like "FWM 1.1" but as it was a lost tape ... why not. And fun, too. The intro was great as Matt was re-acting Grahams part from the first video. I like those shots.
The only really disturbing are the constant commercials taking the lower part of the whole video. Had to click them away three times or so during the short film.

Besides that: What about a "live" Fun with Microwaves during the next Desert Bus? Nuke things for money - FOR THE CHILDREN!

(I wonder what would have happened putting the rest of Pauls beard into the Microwave.)

[Daco]

One last thing, Im sad to say those microwaves are no more, despite cleaning and whatnot they just reeked of horrid chemical doom and were having issues since fire damaged part of it.

[Evil Jim]

Besides that: What about a "live" Fun with Microwaves during the next Desert Bus? Nuke things for money - FOR THE CHILDREN!

That would be somewhat unsafe to do indoors. Consider the fire hazard, water damage from extinguishing said fire hazards & the poisonous smoke & gasses released from microwaving non-food items.

[zico]

Of course. But I thougth about: "Taking the camera outside", if such an event would really happen.

[ecocd]

I've got some laser disks. They are giant CD like objects that made a failed run at replacing VHS tapes during the 80's. If I send you some will you microwave them?

YES.
Yes we will.

I never thought of microwaving a LaserDisc. That's a brilliant idea.

The question I have is whether you can find a microwave big enough to hold them. If I recall, they're pretty large pieces of technology.

It's a shame so many things didn't work this time around. I still want to know what was up with that one Hershey's Kiss. Are there any theories?

[Unclever title]

I've got some laser disks. They are giant CD like objects that made a failed run at replacing VHS tapes during the 80's. If I send you some will you microwave them?

YES.
Yes we will.

I never thought of microwaving a LaserDisc. That's a brilliant idea.

I very want to see this happen. Cause everything is better on a LASERDisc. Including fire.

As for the kisses behaving like they did my guess would be that somehow that one kiss got charged (either by the microwave or before) thus attracting most of the microwave radiation or thus absorbed the sparks from the other kisses.

Electricity takes the path of least resistance (in terms of amount of current flow) so maybe something about the foil around the one was more "appealing" than the others. My question is whether or not after the one kiss had been destroyed that any of the other kisses were singled out in the reaction?

After seeing what was shown in the video I would assume that would be the behavior, but I'd still like to know how it actually went down.

[Cloricus]

Well the nagging ads that didn't leave screen when closed and even had the nerve to pop back up again every minute or so finally convinced me to install an ad blocking application. For the first time ever. Well played.

While the prospect of making 0.08 cents off me in the future no longer exists I hope you will take comfort in the extra forums user you now have!

[Yaxley]

King Kool already mentioned a Game Boy, but I'd really like to see you try that for the next one. I remember seeing a photo in Nintendo Power in the early 90s of a very melted and charred Game Boy that had been damaged in the Gulf War, and it still worked. A quick internet search reveals that it's now on display at the Nintendo World store in New York City.

I'm guessing a microwaving would be even worse for the electronics than a mortar blast, but what is science for if not experimenting.

For extra fun, here a link to a Kotaku article about that Game Boy.

[CygnusX1]

fun.

some other ideas...

- nuke a toothpick lit of fire being supported in an upright position(i've tried this one you get a better plasma effect than the grapes)
- nuke a can of soup to its eventual explosion

[Cake]

You know, Matt's voice is kinda soothing when he's not being loud.

>.>

<.<

What?

[ChiUnit4evr]

Nuke one of Paul's 3 PS3s

[Fodder]

What do fluorescent light tubes do in a microwave?

Very bad things. They contain mercury, sooo... yeah we decided against them.

Now, in the interest of righteousness, you actually did do fluorescent light tubes in the form of the backlight CCFLs of the laptop LCD. The flashing was not the LCD panel itself, (that emits no light, it only lets light pass through) but the backlight CCFLs.

So congrats.

Now, for science, the best thing to do would be to try to nuke one o' them new-fangled LED-backlit screens.

[Yukikaze]

I think most of us know what Laserdiscs are. But considering they're not likely to go into production again you may want to hang on to them. Currently they are between the phases of "new" & "collectible" so it's common to think of them as useless or disposable, but later on you may wish they had stayed out of the microwave. See: Trough of no-value

Um... yes, save your Laserdiscs. Among some circles, they're already "collectable" status. I would be sad to see on of those get nuked.

Actually, that may stand me in good stead if(by which I mean "when") the economy tanks to Great Depression levels.

If you do nuke laserdiscs, though, you should try making a stack of them with a little spacing between each one.

If you opt not to, then do the same thing with a pile of CDs.

[gryffinp]

With the LRR theme of meta (probably suggested before) but why not microwave a microwave.

If you listen to the podcast for the first Fun with Microwaves, they mention that they tried to do just that, but couldn't find a pair that fit. However, simply tearing out a magnetron might be a good plan. I support this.