On Sunday night Greg, Josh, Amy and my mom were here for dinner. Greg mentioned a cool trick about putting a burnt-out light bulb in the microwave in a cup of water and watching it glow. We absolutely had to see how it worked…
We took a light bulb and filled a coffee cup up with a bit of water to cover the metal portion of the bulb. We put the bulb in and started the microwave. We all gathered around patiently to watch – and what do you know the bulb instantly lit up. The colors changed from White, to green-ish white, to blue-ish white, to purple-ish white… we were cheering. In the middle of our cheer….KAAA-BOOOOOM…the ladies in the crowd scream. The bulb exploded into a Ga-gillion pieces (yes, this is a real number).
The Microwave is fine and Mark and Greg cleaned up the tiny extra sharp pieces of glass (lightbulb glass is some of the sharpest glass around) – it was honestly a fantastic experiment. If you are looking for a party trick this might be it.
We think that next time we might keep the microwave on low so we have more chance to view the glowing bulb. Definitely TRY this at home.
November 15, 2005 at 10:36 am
While this sounds incredibly cool, the thought of constant bleeding from the soft mouth tissues due to microscopic glass particles in my food is a bit of a turn off. I actually gave away a spare microwave last week. Stupid timing.
November 15, 2005 at 12:04 pm
Where are the pictures???
I am not sure if this story indicates that Greg would be a great science teacher someday, or if he is too dangerous to be around children.
November 19, 2005 at 11:25 am
Jake says that next you should try microwaving an egg for 10 minutes. The egg will glow. Honest.
November 20, 2005 at 11:42 am
While Michelle and I were in the hospital, we were desperately bored one day, so we turned on America’s Funniest Home Videos. Turns out this kid that exploded an egg in the microwave actually won the grand prize of $10,000! Clearly this would trump that – did you get any film? Send it in!