How to Make Plasma in Your Microwave ... With a Grape
You've probably seen the videos on YouTube turning grapes into fireballs in the microwave. Well, there's a pretty cool scientific explanation for why a grape is perfect for making plasma....
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[♪ INTRO] When you think about plasma, you know, like when you’re just sitting around, thinking about states of matter, you probably imagine stars, or the stuff that comes out of a lightsaber. You probably don’t think about something you’d make in your kitchen microwave. But it’s totally possible, and there are plenty of YouTube videos to prove it. Thanks to some cool physics, you don’t even need fancy technology. All you need is a microwave that you’re willing to destroy … and a grape. Plasma is kind of like a gas, except that its atoms have some of their electrons stripped off, so it’s made up of positively-charged ions and a bunch of free electrons zooming around. To make some, you just have to make some gas really hot, and then send an e...
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[♪ INTRO] When you think about plasma, you know, like when you’re just sitting around, thinking about states of matter, you probably imagine stars, or the stuff that comes out of a lightsaber. You probably don’t think about something you’d make in your kitchen microwave. But it’s totally possible, and there are plenty of YouTube videos to prove it. Thanks to some cool physics, you don’t even need fancy technology. All you need is a microwave that you’re willing to destroy … and a grape. Plasma is kind of like a gas, except that its atoms have some of their electrons stripped off, so it’s made up of positively-charged ions and a bunch of free electrons zooming around. To make some, you just have to make some gas really hot, and then send an e...
