youtu.be/OyTmJX_TC84 Here’s a YouTube video of a guy actively trying to make arcs.
Comment on DIY 4th of July
LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Comically enough, many spoons of out in the microwave would be fine. Not recommending you try it, but if the issue comes from arcs. And spoons don’t have areas where arcs can occur naturally, like a fork.
olafurp@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
toynbee@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
kameecoding@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Yep, I have microwaved plenty of tea and coffee with the spoon in it.
toynbee@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Spoon or not, I’m told this is a sin.
Perhaps including silver purifies the act.
kameecoding@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
If you mean like, by the standpoint of coffee purists, then idgaf, it’s shitty tasting make brain go fast water, there is no way to ruin it, how can something that tastes like shit taste more shit? It can’t
LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Yeah I know it uses waves towards the center but the are throughout the microwave, yet no one questions the holes in the metal siding, which are metal circles. So if arcing was an issue on smooth sutfaces, it should happen there as well.
MotoAsh@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Not really. The case should be grounded, so even if it were causing a charge differential in the metal, it’d just make a current to ground (or back to the neutral magnetron pole if it’s not grounded). Although ‘current back to ground’ is likely misstating it, since it’d be an AC induced current that wouldn’t be moving too far and ultimately just heat up the metal in place without electrons doing much more than wobbling about.
Metal in the microwave can create arcs because the metal is surrounded by the microwaves with no conductive path anywhere, so charges can just slosh around more and more as power is applied. Get a large enough charge built up in some area that it has the potential to jump through the air to a less charged place, and bam, arc.
The door works fine because the holes are too small to even let the waves through, so there isn’t a big fluctuating EM field all around it to produce much of any different charge potentials to cause current to flow, so no sloshing charges and no real heating.
potoo22@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
The contact points between the spoons will heat up and may melt or spark.
LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
You mean like a spoon on a glass or ceramic plate? That seems unlikely.
There is even companies that make glass/stainless steel lids for their microwave safe containers. So the kids won’t warp like the plastic ones do and have to be thrown away
gens@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
No, he means that the small points will arch electicity, leading to more stuff
dingus@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
But since there are multiple spoons and other metal items in the microwave, couldn’t these items still arc off of one another?
LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Oh definitely. Individual metal smooth ball, fine. 10 of them not touching fine. 9 spoons not touching, fine. But if one touches the wall of the microwave or another of the objects there will be a quick spark, and depending on how long the contact, maybe a flame+
Signtist@bookwyr.me 3 weeks ago
I learned this by accident while heating up some hot cocoa as a kid, haha!
Agent641@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I microwave my coffee with a spoon in it every morning at work, it’s fine
disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
That depends on the condition of the nickel plating. Scratched up cheap stainless would probably arc.
potoo22@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
To my understanding, the arcing is caused by hard edges. E.g. all the elections could be at the end of a fork’s tines, and EM field forces them to jump to another tine instead of going through the root of the fork.
Since spoons are rounded, they don’t need to jump. I don’t think the material plays much of a role in arcing other than providing resistance. They would heat up, but they’d melt before they arc. Still, they can arc from one spoon to another spoon when there multiple spoons close enough.
disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Absolutely. It’s far more likely with a fork, but deep enough or well placed scratches/gouges on a spoon could create the condition.
onslaught545@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
It’s unlikely period. Electroboom did a video on it and had one hell of a hard time getting any metal to arc in the microwave, even balled up aluminum foil.
MotoAsh@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
EM fields concentrate from the edges, like how magnetic field lines concentrate around a paperclip hanging from a magnet. It’s not about charged particles being able to retreat, but that the EM field will straight up be stronger in those areas.
LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I’m lazy and don’t use tik tok, but from what I’ve seen when my spouse is on there this would make an interesting tik tok channel (is that what they are called?). Spoon Spark, where someone collects a shit ton of spoons and people take their guess on whether or not they’ll spark or even start a fire. Maybe get different power levels of microwaves to increase to throughout the tournament.
The E-Waste Arc Spark competition.
SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
That’s so stupid. But also quite interesting lol