Things That Explode In Microwaves
Brown paper bags should not go in the microwave. They can bring flames full of toxic fumes as the bag interacts with microwaves. Another no-no is Styrofoam because of the amount of plastic it contains. When melting anything made of plastic is made with chemicals. Just make sure that everything you put in the microwave, says microwave safe. I was surfing the internet and came across an article that said grapes explode in the microwave. At first, I thought why would anyone want to put grapes in the microwave? So, I read on a little further because now I’m intrigued.
Researchers have found that grapes are able to concentrate the energy of the microwave into hotspots. This happens when a grape is split in half or when two are touching. When these hotspots touch, they create plasma or a gas that emits light and heat. They found that when two grapes are placed side by side in the microwave, they repeatedly bumped into each other. They don’t know why this happens, but they plan to study that next.
Physicist Stephen Bosi from the University of Sydney tried the experiment back in in 2011 on the YouTube channel Veritasium. The grapes sparked creating a glow or light show inside the microwave. The later found that this experiment had burned the interior of the school’s microwave. They will continue their research using plastic grape replicas and are talking about experimenting with raisins next. I did not try this experiment at home because I am not a scientist and feel that it’s probably best not to experiment at home and you shouldn’t either, let’s leave that to the professionals. I love my grapes too much to waste them! Check out the videos on YouTube, you will find them interesting.
