Exploding Grapes!
It never ceases to amaze me the phenomena that will capture human attention. Exploding grapes in microwaves?! If it were up to me, I would just page gizmo!
But quite a bit of research seems to have been devoted to this issue.
More below.
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Diaries earlier this year by Besame (here) and Franks Human (here) cite research that attributes the phenomenon to ‘plasma.’
I did not know of the plasma theory. I came to the discussion by way of a link to this atlasobscura article, that claims that plasma is NOT the answer.
Here is how this latest article describes the initial research.
The leading theory was that when two halves of a grape are microwaved, the skin bridge connecting them acts as an antenna. The current that runs through the antenna heats up until a plasma forms. (Plasma, by the way, is an ionized gas that occurs when atoms are heated to the point that they release their electrons. Lightning is plasma, as is the sun.)
So, this latest team … “the team used “thermal-imaging techniques and computer simulations” to examine what was happening.” (In fact, they killed a dozen microwave ovens in the process!)
What really is happening, then?! Here is the ‘money paragraph.’
In what Bianucci (one of the scientists on this latest team) calls “a very lucky coincidence,” grapes are mostly made of water, which, as it happens, reduces the wavelengths of microwaves significantly. From around 12 centimeters in the air, they go to around one or two centimeters in water: a bit smaller than your average grape. “Microwaves can get trapped inside the grape,” says Bianucci. If a grape is microwaved by itself, a hotspot forms in its center from the trapped microwaves. But when two grapes are close enough, the waves can “hop” from one to the other. “This hopping results in a very strong electromagnectic field in between the grapes,” he says. When the field is strong enough to ionize the sodium and potassium ions in the grapes, it results in a tiny fireball.
Yes. Exploding grapes.
In the interest of full disclosure, I have never placed a grape in a microwave for any reason. And I encourage you to not do it, either!
I will, however, try to wait here patiently for gizmo to help make it clearer to me!
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