The Microwaved CD
Since microwaves came along, I have always had fantasies about putting odd objects in and seeing the reactions. This is probably one of the most interesting experiements. Putting the CD in the oven and waiting for the reaction. Warning: Do not try this at home!
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40 Comments
- Mike2008-05-16 14:48:51
I first did this about 10 years ago just to see what would happen. The first one was fine, but after throwing in about 10 at once I fried the microwave and filled the kitchen with smoke. Needless to say, my mom was PISSED!
- Bob Holness2008-05-16 14:58:18
If she had not have been pissed, she may not have let you do it. Go go alcoholic moms!
- Jesse2008-05-16 15:08:37
Some friends of mine tried this in our dorm microwave. It was really cool but DAMN did it STINK! You could smell it all the way over on the other wing of the building. The RA found out who did it and punished them because it stunk up the dorm so bad.
- Axl2008-05-16 15:40:46
Jesse you're a fag!
- Cyrus2008-05-16 15:40:58
We did this when I was in middle school once. It was after school, and we got the teacher's permission to try it out. It was pretty awesome, sparks and everything. Took the CD out, felt it to make sure it was cool, and threw it in the trash. 45 minutes later, the science lab burned down. Needless to say, the CD was the prime suspect. Turns out that it didn't start it, though.
- reddog2008-05-16 15:41:43
beautiful pictures
- johnny2008-05-16 15:47:21
i do this all the time at work to destroy CDs with sensitive data on them. as others have noted, it smells horrible, and i imagine the polycarbonate vapor is quite toxic.
- Tom Woolf2008-05-17 15:17:31
The Mythbusters guys nuked some of their CDs to weaken tehem when testing whether 56x speed CD drives could cause CDs to shatter outwardly in a dangerous manner. They were weakened, they shattered, they dented the metal casing of the CD drive. Oh, and they sparked quite a bit when they were nuked.
- Joey2008-05-17 18:41:41
Wow, those are beautiful photos! Have you got one I can use as a wallpaper?!? Thanks for the indulgence.
- Luis2008-05-17 23:40:01
Hi. Nice job. Pretty eye-catching photos. Do you have'em in a bigger resolution? Thx.
- rocknrico2008-05-18 00:12:01
For you kiddies interested in doing this: http://www.wikihow.com/Destroy-a-CD-or-DVD The vapors or fumes released from most DVD's and CD's while microwaving them are TOXIC. Do not do the above unless you have a spare microwave, as the fumes can attach to the walls of the microwave, or cling to your food.
- Milla Valkeasuo2008-05-18 00:30:12
I especially like the third photo. Beautiful! :D
- LtJackboot2008-05-18 01:26:59
I see a couple of posters need instructions on how to use this as wallpaper? I thought you all were more informed than that. Ok, here goes: using your mouse, right click on the picture and 'save image as' whatever the hell you want (just make sure to remember the filename) then go to an empty spot on your desktop and right click-select 'properties' from the menu and then the 'desktop' tab. use the browse function to find the file name and don't forget to hit APPLY! I once got paid 20 dollars to teach some woman that the reason her desktop settings wouldn't hold was because she was hitting OK instead of APPLY.
- Monkey Bars2008-05-18 01:37:56
Wow LtJackBoot, you're pretty stupid. I don't know what resolution your desktop runs at, but those sure as hell would look like shit on mine. Not to mention you can simply right-click on the image and click "Set as Desktop Background"... Oh, and hitting OK does the same thing as APPLY, but it closes the menu, whereas APPLY leaves it open. Instead of being a jerk and talking down to people, try just being smart next time.
- lydia hall2008-05-18 02:01:14
The American Army does this also...my son told me about it after he ETS'd out
- steve2008-05-18 02:38:08
Those are some pretty good pictures, I applaud you for them. Here are some more photos, and videos of what happens when you microwave lots of other electronic things: Microwave Science"
- Drew2008-05-18 05:42:10
I'd love to see these in a high enough resolution to use for wallpaper.
- Tom2008-05-18 05:57:06
How did you take the photos without the screen getting in the way? It seems a low f-stop wouldn't be enough. Was it rigged to allow the door to stay open while functioning?
- bill beaty2008-05-18 05:59:56
The fractures first grow via a fascinating effect called "electromigration." Once the aluminum layer has been spontaneously sliced into separate sections, high voltage appears across the fractures, and arcs start leaping across. Try this: put one or more glasses of water in the microwave. It slows down the whole "zapping" process. The arcing is not quite a "radio antenna" effect. An empty microwave oven contains an extreme e-field because of resonant rise. Any two conductive objects will be at two different voltages with respect to ground. The voltages can be pretty high (many kilovolts.) If two sharp-edged conductors such as the foil segments in a CD are very close together, the high voltage between them will cause arcing. It's purely a voltage effect rather than the electric/magnetic effect present in a radio antenna. (An unloaded microwave oven is very much like a Tesla coil.) But the aluminum layer gets sliced up before all this high-volt stuff happens. Why? It's because there are large currents induced in the aluminum foil by the radio waves. The current isn't nearly enough to hurt the foil. But if tiny defects exist in the foil, such as microscopic regions of insulator, these defects cause the "lines of current" to become compressed near the defect. It's sort of like a lightning bolt, but rather than lines of e-field being attracted to the sharp tip of a plasma streamer, instead lines of charge-flow are pushed away by the sharp tip of a growing fracture in the aluminum. The lines are squeezed and the current density increases. If the tip of a fracture was infinitely sharp, the current density in the metal in front of the fracture would be infinitely high. A microscopic region of aluminum "goes away," and the fracture gets longer. New fractures grow from the sides of old ones. It's like "inside out lightning bolts," since the fractures are a network of insulators growing in a conductive environment, and the growth is caused by currents rather than voltage which concentrates at the tips of the growing fractures.
- scwolf2008-05-18 07:55:24
While the wikihow entry linked to above does mention this in its warnings, it's important enough to mention again. Running a microwave "dry" is hard on the magenetron. If you do want to nuke a CD, fill a microwave safe mug with water and stick it in the back corner first, so that there's some moisture contrent in the cooking chamber.
- gib2008-05-18 18:00:00
HOW were these pictures taken? Removed the front grid on the door? Seems dangerous.. but they are beautiful.
- Gever2008-05-19 01:21:49
I microwaved my balls one time,it totally destroyed them beauties.Hurt like a mutha but was fun.All i have left now is the sack buuut i try not to dwell on it too much.Seemed like a good idea at the time and i´d do it again fo sho.
- Noah2008-05-19 10:29:45
Good lord, I've microwaved dozens of CDs over the years -- maybe hundreds. It's not a big deal. Some disks do stink more than others. CDRs seem to be the worst. I've never had the vapor stink for very long. I've done this to lots of disks at work. No one has ever notices. ... The disks decorate my cube. ... I've found that 2 to 3 seconds about the right amount of time.
- nexon2008-05-19 18:31:53
I agree with gib: How are these photos taken? There's no trace of the grid that covers the microwave window. Was the door removed? Does that damage the camera?
- As vytaute2008-05-22 16:16:02
Vytaute yra lama
- Darius ( ThinkBig! )2008-05-24 00:48:23
Well.... what has left to say... it's really impressive :) beautiful moments. But how did you make the cd to stay vertical ?
- Burt Reynolds2008-05-27 21:47:12
Yeah,how did that cd stay vertical in that oven?Thats exactly what i want to know too.Ill admit that this has been bothering me 24/7 also.Can´t sleep cause of it,can´t eat....im going muy loco basically over this and this is getting in the way of my acting career,if i may be frank....oh,but im Burt......ah......oh well,someone has had a little too much scotch today ,heh heh. By the way,is it dangerous when i kinda customed my highly expensive microwave oven?Now i got total free access and no door in it anymore but now i can´t get "it" up no mo.I think this is somehow related issue?I think my days of doing the "O-face" are over. Well,i brought this all onto meself again....................sheesh....Damn,where is that boy and my scotch and my backrub................and flip flops.......???.
- Ezmyrelda2009-01-28 16:50:37
Monkey Bars: Your a fucking tard. It's called apply for a reason.
- Геннадий2009-07-23 19:43:28
А мне вот интересно, а сам автор читает комментарии к этому сообщению. Или мы тут сами для себя пишем? :)
- Адриан2009-08-26 17:14:15
Интересный пост, спасибо вам. Меня интересует только вопрос - будет ли продолжение? :)
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- datenritter blog2008-05-29 14:15:16
Tesladonnerstag: Spaß mit Mikrowellen und Fotoblitzen... • Things to Do With a Photoflash Unit — Man kann aus Einwegkameras einen kleinen(?) Taser, oder eher einen Elektroschocker bauen. Würde ich aber lassen, die Wikipedia-Artikel sind hoffentlich deutlich genug. • Hier gibt's das gan...
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