Hacker News Reader

Comment by jkubicek | Hacker News Reader

In the late 90s, someone in my house decided to put an orange in a microwave for 30+ minutes just for the hell of it.

Nothing happened for the first 20 minutes or so, but then the orange cracked open and belched out thick black smoke that smelled _disgusting_.

At some point I'm going to sacrifice an old microwave and recreate this experiment outside; I'm desperate to know what the heck is going on with that microwaved orange.

View on HN

A niece did something like that as her high school science fair project. She got a cheap microwave from Walmart, then tested theories on how long various items would last before becoming a smoking pile, based on their sugar, fat, and protein content.

I'm sure that would have been interesting to see that data. I had an ancient microwave that had cook times for various classical american dishes. Apparently its 30 minutes to microwave an entire turkey.

Alright, so the gauntlet has been thrown. Who's going to take one for the team?

Wild guess: sugar burnt black, which smells horrific.

Another fun experiment is to slice a grape in half and stick it under a glass cup, then start the microwave and step the hell back. Also, never ever put an egg in a microwave. I accidentally made that mistake and it blew the door open and shattered the glass dish. Might as well have microwaved dynamite.

Holy shit, you were not kidding.

https://youtu.be/h0fcTQQk1rE?t=24 (and...keep watching!)

https://youtu.be/PfyVRhL2Dgw?t=129

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/qcAuVsX3dTg

> Might as well have microwaved dynamite.

On that note, do not ever microwave carbon fiber. It's more like an ammo crate going up than a single explosion, but still... don't do it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com