non-food things in the microwave

[da]

OK, I was curious. So I just googled around. Yes, lots of pages suggest it's fine to put staples in microwaves. Mostly recipes. But this guy says otherwise, and I believe him because his page is called "UNWISE MICROWAVE OVEN EXPERIMENTS." Oh, and he's an electrical engineer and he wraps his explanations on microwave ball-lightning and explosions in very expert-sounding detail. Fascinating site.

Anyway, he says stapled paper bags in microwaves cause fires. So that's it for me.

...To follow up something else bats22 told me recently, ivory soap has interesting properties in the microwave. You end up with a big puffy thing that hardens, and is still soap.

I'm so going to try that.

Comments

non food things in microwaves, other stuff

[fairiegodmother.livejournal.com]

Metallics bad. Even things you wouldn't expect, like baby bottles with a dab of paint on them. I caused a kitchen fire and nuked a microwave oven 21 years ago warming up a kid's bottle. It had been painted with a little flower, using paint that probably went with model cars. The flower was a delicate little thing, no more than 3/4" tall, in red and green. The resulting light show in the kitchen was hellaciously large, with lightning, ozone, smoke, fire, and a largish hole burned through the top of the oven.

I killed the other one by spilling a bowl of pennies that had been left on top of the microwave. Some of them fell into the thingie on the back.

Have also nuked the keypads on two Sharp Microwave ovens in a row, because my right hand gives off so much energy. I also melt keyboards. 7 in a row, all on the right side.

When I've not blowing up microwave ovens or otherwise rendering them useless, I like to put Peeps in them. You know, those horrible pastel colored marshmallow things that look like chicks and bunnies? They blow up real good.

Fairie G

Re: non food things in microwaves, other stuff

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

bats22 told me that his fraternity had Peeps Jousts. Which went like so: fasten a toothpick to a each of two peeps, point them at each other, and nuke them. The one that punctures the other one and causes it to deflate, wins.

Re: non food things in microwaves, other stuff

[fairiegodmother.livejournal.com]

I love that idea! Can't eat the damned things, so I might as well have fun with them.

Thank you for sharing!

Fairie G

Re: non food things in microwaves, other stuff

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

I was about to type that you're not supposed to heat baby bottles in the microwave anyway, but I'm less sure of that for formula than breastmilk.

Re: non food things in microwaves, other stuff

[fairiegodmother.livejournal.com]

Yeah, thanks! This was like, 20 years ago when we didn't know squat about anything. Nonetheless, the kid is now 22 and has a job and a car and a husband, so don't worry about it. :) btw, she was breastfed until she was 2. She only got things like water and juice out of a bottle...

Fairie G

Re: non food things in microwaves, other stuff

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

Sorry! It's more an indictation of where my brain is with a 4 month old than of me trying to fix other peoples' problems, but the first thing I thought upon reading that was "but the nutrients! the nutrients will melt away!"

It was also about 2 minutes after going to microwave some water to soak a bottle of breastmilk so we could practise while I took a shower, and first thing in the morning on top of that...

now back to your regularly scheduled journal. (though the mommy in me also wants to say to da_lj, "as soon as melted_snowball leaves, you try wrecking the microwave! We can't leave you alone for a minute!")

Re: non food things in microwaves, other stuff

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

though the mommy in me also wants to say...

But Mooommmm....

*points*

he said it would be OK.

...Heh. No problems. Soap doesn't explode. It just goes boof.

I'll post photos later. :)

[mynatt.livejournal.com]

I'm so going to try that.

In your own microwave!?

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

Urm... yes. ;)

your own microwave

[fairiegodmother.livejournal.com]

In your own microwave!?

Absotively. After generating lightning, ozone, smoke and fire in one, and basically nuking 2 microwaves to the point they became landfill, then burning up the electronic displays in 2 more because I have "healing hands", what's a little more excitement?

Peep Jousts and Ivory Soap all sound delightful, and I can hardly wait for my next trip to the store.

However, you won't catch me putting staples in those puppies, either. I learned my lesson with the baby bottle and pennies.

Fairie G

[thingo.livejournal.com]

Wait. It blows up and just becomes a larger piece of soap? I'll never run out of soap again! Isn't this a practical example of the Banach-Tarski paradox?

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

Isn't this a practical example of the Banach-Tarski paradox?

<tongue-in-cheek> No. It's not a sphere. </tongue-in-cheek>

[melted-snowball.livejournal.com]

Finally, fusion becomes practical...