Unwise Microwave ExperimentShow Video Details ↓ Bill Beaty: Molten beer bottle droplet. [silence] For this we need a microwave oven, beer bottle and a blow-torch. This is an electric start map gas type of torch, very convenient. [noise] But propane, standard propane probably would work also since we only have to heat the glass up to red hot, we don't have to actually melt it. Remove the paper label [noise] … and open and drain the beer bottle. [silence] Remove the glass platter. This actually makes a big difference. When there is nothing in the microwave oven, the glass platter sucks up all the energy. Place the bottle well back in the oven so any breaking glass won't come flying out if the door happens to be open. So you set it for a good long time, ten minutes. And now carefully heat it with a torch so the glass doesn't break from thermal stress. [noise] … I am wearing safety goggles at this point. [noise] … … … Pre-heat the glass in a big patch, then blast it in one little spot to create a red glowing hot spot. [noise] … [noise] There we go. Close the oven and fire away. [noise] … [noise] Do I see a glow? Yup, it has caught. [noise] … [noise] It'll be pretty bright. Let's zoom in on that. [noise] … And it has burned through the glass. [noise] [noise] [noise] A plasma outbreak. [noise] [noise] [noise] [noise] [noise] OK, let's take a look. Yup, too hot to touch. You want to close the door because after it cools down, maybe after 5 minutes, the glass with crack and shatter. So wait for it to shatter and then you can clean it out after it's nice and cold. Here, a couple of minutes have passed and I think all the shattering is done. Let's take a look and it's cool enough to touch. There we go. Hey look at it, it shattered right around the melted part. Probably if I tap on it I could break that part right off of the entire bottle. [silence] Now this stuff all started when I had my unwise microwave oven experiments page going and a couple of different repair companies, people told me that they would put a Pyrex bowl full of boiling water in the microwave oven to clean it. But sometimes they'd leave it going for ten hours instead of 10 minutes like they punched in the extra zeros. And the bowl would boil dry and then it would turn into lava, a great big molten glass out break would happen. And I... after I heard about that I realized I should be able to do that on purpose because physics teachers have a demonstration where they take some lamp cord and a plug and strip it down and wrap it around a glass rod. And glass of course is a good insulator. But if you heat it up with a blow torch, when glass is a dull red heat it becomes an ionic conductor, electrolytic conductor. So, a conductor inside a microwave oven will absorb microwaves. So if the glass ever got hot enough in one little spot, it would be like a forest fire. There would be an outbreak of conductivity and it would start absorbing microwave energy like mad. So maybe there is a little gobby of something conductive on the glass to get it started. But outside of that, I should be able to heat up a little spot with a blow torch and throw the bottle in the microwave oven and have the whole thing melt down and sure enough, works just great. [silence] … |