Microwaving Grapes Makes Plasma

Veritasium · 20M views · 2019-02-18 · 8:16

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Overview

Veritasium explains why a halved grape in a microwave makes plasma: the grape traps microwaves, and the fields of two halves interact to concentrate energy where they touch.

On Hacker News

Mentioned as a classic physics demo in threads on microwaves and related resonance effects.

Discussed on HN; no positive recommendation is recorded in this export · HN mentions 2020–2024

Topics

Everyday physics & science demos Fundamental physics

What people said

xeonmc · 2024-12 · Joke / meme
veritasium video [VIDEO] Essentially, when this gets commercialized we'll be able to make room-temperature qubits using two grapes and a diamond in a microwave oven. This opens up a whole new field of "grapetronics" for scalable quantum computing hardware.
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gsf_emergency · 2024-12 · Reference
Pedantry, from a promateur, but also see the Veritasium tube linked elsewhere here: 0. No cutting needed whatsoever, but you do need a watch-glass. (Keeps the grapes in contact) [VIDEO]
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1letterunixname · 2024-03 · Reference
Related classics: (2019) BigClive overclocks a 120v Presto hot dogger to 250v [LINK] (2019) Veratasium grape microwave plasma [VIDEO] (2022) BigClive The dangers of microwave transformers [LINK] (2016) BigClive Electrocution risk of cheap USB chargers [LINK] (2020) ElectroBOOM proves 5G isn't going to give you cancer or eat your children [LINK]
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Sources

Video by Veritasium, played through YouTube.

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