As part of the KLPZ Morning show today, I produced a segment which explored the results of placing various items in a microwave oven to see what would happen. Call it ‘practical science’, live on the radio. I was outside the studio with a cameraman and a microphone, and during the course of the morning we nuked some eggs, marshmallows, a silicone breast implant, a yellow highlighter, a pomegranate, and a couple of CDs. A few observations on the experiments:
1) Duck eggs take longer to blow than chicken eggs, though they pop much more violently when they do.
2) There’s something pressurised in a yellow highlighter.
3) Silicone breast implants are impressive; we couldn’t get ours to get significantly hot, let alone blow up, expand or even melt. After five minutes in the microwave, I was able to lift it out with my bare hands and it felt only warm to the touch. This lays waste to the urban legend that women with breast implants should not stand too close to the microwave.
4) Pomegranates are possibly the most boring fruit known to mankind.
5) CDs sparkle all over their surface for around a minute before beginning to burn and melt in flames.
6) Light bulbs are – by far – the most entertaining thing you can put in a microwave. Ours lit up, in all the colours of the rainbow, pink, green, yellow, purple, white, red, and then exploded. I’ve heard that you can set it in a glass of water to keep it from exploding, allowing you to enjoy its effects for longer.
All in all, a fun morning…