[Closed] Metal in microwave ovens ...

Depends on the microwave. In old ones it'd arc like crazy before shutting down the microwave

shame you didn't watch - i bet there was mini lightning!!

mini lightning ! ... I might just do it again then 😆

the microwave must be about 15 years old?

We had a microwave in our sixth form room we abused the hell out of and the metal thing is a total crock. You can cook a fork for as long as you want and nothing happens. Silver foil on the other hand... 😆

I've got a Siemens one and you are supposed to leave a spoon in any liquid you heat.

[b]I hope you didn't touch the spoon!!!![/b]

It is now highly radioactive, having absorbed all the microwave energy.

Pick it out with some tongs or something and then bury it in the garden for at least a year.

some you can use metal in, some catering ones have a lower power setting that is fine.

Over time it may damage the microwave if it's the only thing in there. In the short term it damages the fork/spoon/CD (though smooth/thick metal objects without points are generally ok).

<edited for clarity>

It is now highly radioactive, having absorbed all the microwave energy.

Do you not need two bits of metal in order for the fancy lights to occur? Or maybe one bit of metal that's crumpled and so has several 'surfaces', eg. tin foil? Or something like that?

you want to put a grape in there, almost cut in two but with a little bit of skin connecting the two halves. Skin side down. Little elctrical storm 😉

darn'it already done that, how long do I have left on this planet?

Not sure, but you have a half-life of several thousand years.

if you put conkers in a microwave they explode! something to do with the moisture content....

you want to put a grape in there, almost cut in two but with a little bit of skin connecting the two halves. Skin side down. Little elctrical storm

I shall try that this evening, i hope you're not pulling my leg.

It is now highly radioactive, having absorbed all the microwave energy.

Pick it out with some tongs or something and then bury it in the garden for at least a year.

You do realise all the worms and slugs in the garden will gain super powers from it?

Tsk. Shocking irresponsible advice you get on the interweb these days. 🙄

nope. bona-fide kitchen experiment.

see if there are any videos on youtube or instructables.

Second vote for grape in the microwave.

[i]Thin [/i]metal is the problem. It's all to do with electricity.

Microwaves induce a current in metal objects inside the oven. Thin metal objects can build up a high charge on their points and edges; eventually it gets high enough that air is no longer a good insulator, and lighting flies. Also, thin metal = high electrical resistance = gets bloody hot, so be careful.

With thicker metal this isn't really an issue, but it's still not a good idea. Metal reflects microwaves, so there's a chance that you can end up reflecting microwave energy back to its source (the groovily-named "magentron"). If that happens enough, you can blow up the oven.

</geek>

http://www.instructables.com/id/Electric-sparks-with-grapes/

http://www.instructables.com/id/Electric-sparks-with-grapes/
/p>

EDIT: In the comments section someone says "Now put a glass over the grapes!!!!!!!!" - Ive not tried this and wont be near my microwave for a couple of days and desperately need to know what happens, so could one of you do it and let me know please.

(the groovily-named "magentron").

is that like a lilac coloured robot?
😉

Get a tumbler, fill it half full with wter, stick a normal lightbulb in it, then put it in the microwave. It should light up.

Or explode. I can never remember which it is supposed to do.

An egg in a microwave will take the door off. A grapefruit will fling the door across a field - apparently.

Cd is the best tho. First 10 seconds is like the Emperor zapping Skywalker in Jedi. Leave it in and a minute or so later a series of white hot fires will break out around the CD, filling your micrwowave with super dense concentrated acrid smoke which, when you open the door, will fill the kitchen with choking fumes and reduce visibility to a few inches as you crawl out gasping for air....

An egg in a microwave will take the door off. A grapefruit will fling the door across a field - apparently.

You've been watching too much brainiac (the show of a million lies and exaggeration!). I've microwaved an egg, it just took a lot of cleaning off the insides

A bar of soap produces interesting sculptures

I've seen a video showing plasma balls in the microwave, haven't tried it yet.

Years ago a friend, whilst somewhat worse for wear, cooked an egg in it's shell in the microwave. The egg never exploded, he carried it into the living room in the egg cup and touched the top to cut it off, a huge bang and hot egg went everywhere. A large portion of it was on the old victorian height ceilings.

You've been watching too much brainiac

I most certainly have not. You should know me better than that by now!

The egg thing was described to me by a nice if somewhat bimbo-like Italian lady who did it herself and was quite shaken, because she had just bent down to get something - the door would have hit her in the face otherwise.

The grapefruit thing was tried by a friend of mine, who would have no reason to make it up.

Admittedly I wasn't actually their either time.

Years ago a friend, whilst somewhat worse for
wear, cooked an egg in it's shell in the
microwave. The egg never exploded, he
carried it into the living room in the egg cup
and touched the top to cut it off, a huge bang
and hot egg went everywhere. A large portion of it was on the old victorian height ceilings.

Do I know you? I did exactly that in a rented room in Aberdeen. Tiny little bits of egg e-v-e-r-y where.

I was already late for work so had to leave it till I got back.

Got back and discovered the landlady had completely dealt with it.

We never spoke of it 😳

EDIT: In the comments section someone says "[b]Now put a glass over the grapes[/b]!!!!!!!!" - Ive not tried this and wont be near my microwave for a couple of days and desperately need to know what happens, so could one of you do it and let me know please.

geoff - that's teasing - Im behind a firewall!

http://flic.kr/p/8r7TNn

nope. will have to wait till I get home

I'm pretty sure an egg is entirely incapable of removing a microwave door (although perhaps Italian microwaves are built like their cars, which would explain it).

Exploding egg - that's superheating. Happened to me once with soup.

Stuck a tin of tomato soup in the microwave, same length of time I've done a thousand times. Towards the end of the cooking, there was an almighty BANG like a gunshot, and I returned to an orange microwave.

I was once told (by a microwave engineer) that sparking metal is all down to the size & shape of the metal object. Which is why larger volume microwaves have bare metal insides, and smaller ones are enamel-coated.

On the more interesting topic of things going in the microwave that shouldn't, I was once at a party, some (drunk) mates and I found ourselves in the kitchen. There was a Daddy Long Legs flying around the kitchen, so we captured it and stuck it in the microwave. You'll never guess what happened...bloody thing died.

Oi, Stoner, i tried the grape thing and it did naff all! Well, it bubbled a bit and went all mushy, but it wasn't the electrical storm i was led to expect.

(green grape & seedless by the way, maybe that's why)

did you definitely leave the two halves connected by skin and have them sitting flat side up?

Yep and yep. Defective grape?

Superheated water in a glass bowl is also quite interesting.

If the bowl is perfectly smooth and clean, you can heat water to super high tempratures and not have it boil.

The reason for this is because was the oxygen in the water clings to imperfections in the glass (such as dirt etc) and produces bubbles of gas which causes the boiling effect.

If there are no imperfections all the water can do is get hot. If you were to put an object in the water at these tempratures it would boil immediately and pretty much explode.

was it a positive or negative grape?

I thought you needed a grape and an anti grape?

Won't they annihilate each other in a burst of pure Pinot Grigio?

There's probably a good raisin your experiment didnt work.

Juiced give it to me straight damnit.

make sure you use a very vine knife to cut them in half