Introduction Find uses for your microwave you never knew existed with this fun collection from Instructables.com . Don’t sell your microwave short! Whether you are conducting science experiments or making gifts, you will unleash your microwave's true potential with these creative and unconventional projects. Instructables is the most popular project-sharing community on the Internet. We provide easy publishing tools to enable passionate, creative people like you to share their most innovative projects, recipes, skills, and ideas. Instructables has over 40,000 projects covering all subjects, including crafts, art, electronics, kids, home improvement, pets, outdoors, reuse, bikes, cars, robotics, food, decorating, woodworking, costuming, games, and more. Check it out today! Sarah James Editor, Food & Living Instructables.com Table of Contents Introduction Microwave Science Experiments - Will it blow up? What can we stick in? Microwave Night at MITERS Edible Chemistry from the Microwave! Build a Microwave Transformer Homemade Stick/Arc Welder How To Measure the Speed of Light... Using Chocolate! How to make shell candles Microwaved CD Candle Holder 5-minute Chocolate Cake The Microwave Bday Cake Easy Koolaid Microwave Wool Dye Technique How To Take Apart A Microwave Ahashare.com Author and Copyright Notices Instructable: Microwave Science Experiments - Will it blow up? What can we stick in? Microwave Night at MITERS Author: stasterisk License: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (by-nc-sa) Instructable: Edible Chemistry from the Microwave! Author: imshanedulong License: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (by-nc-sa) Instructable: Build a Microwave Transformer Homemade Stick/Arc Welder Author: stasterisk License: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (by-nc-sa) Instructable: How To Measure the Speed of Light... Using Chocolate! Author: bradpowers License: Public Domain (pd) Instructable: How to make shell candles Author: Danger is my middle name License: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (by-nc-sa) Instructable: Microwaved CD Candle Holder Author: drumperry License: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (by-nc-sa) Instructable: 5-minute Chocolate Cake Author: scoochmaroo License: Public Domain (pd) Instructable: The Microwave Bday Cake Author: italiancooking License: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (by-nc-sa) Instructable: Easy Koolaid Microwave Wool Dye Technique Author: myrrhmaid License: Attribution-ShareAlike (by-sa) Instructable: How To Take Apart A Microwave Author: Plasmana License: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (by-nc-sa) Disclaimer All do-it-yourself activities involve risk, and your safety is your own responsibility, including proper use of equipment and safety gear, and determining whether you have adequate skill and experience. Some of the resources used for these projects are dangerous unless used properly and with adequate precautions, including safety gear. Some illustrative photos do not depict safety precautions or equipment, in order to show the project steps more clearly. The projects are not intended for use by children. Many projects on Instructables are user-submitted, and appearance of a project in this format does not indicate it has been checked for safety or functionality. Use of the instructions and suggestions is at your own risk. Instructables, Inc. disclaims all responsibility for any resulting damage, injury, or expense. It is your responsibility to make sure that your activities comply with all applicable laws. Microwave Science Experiments - Will it blow up? What can we stick in? Microwave Night at MITERS Published by stasterisk on February 12, 2008 Author Bio: stasterisk (author's website) Hi! I'm Star Simpson! I'm a real me! See more at [http://stars.mit.edu stars.mit.edu]. photo by [http://bea.st/ Jeff Lieberman] (http://bea.st) stasterisk - my name is Star, and when I was 13 I signed my name as "St*r", with the * a five pointed star with the "A" a bit bolder. I think I once shortened it to "ST*" and my best friend glanced over and said "ST*?" "How am I even supposed to pronounce that, 'st- asterisk'?" hence stasterisk! Intro: Microwave Science Experiments - Will it blow up? What can we stick in? Microwave Night at MITERS MITERS is a creative heaven for MIT inventor types and practical physicists. We have build parties every Friday at 7 in N52-115, and anyone is welcome to come check it out and build something. This build party, we got an old junky microwave from a thrift store, and put any interesting thing into it, before stripping it of its transformers and turning it into a welder . Our microwave doesn't have a turntable, but it does have an impeller, which is a piece of metal outside the oven chamber that spins and changes the magnetic resonance of the box to keep standing waves from forming. Picturing that, or at least keeping it in mind, will give you a clearer idea of why the grapes arc inconsistently, why the lightbulbs don't stay on, etc. Photos and videos, courtesy of Jordi Castell, posted here so you can hold your own Microwave-It night! You can also see the original photo/images at http://evalu29.uv.es/~jordi/build_party/ Step 1: Grapes So, when you cut a grape in half (almost, but not quite fully sliced), they're about the same length as a half-wave of 2.4GHz radiation (which are microwaves). That means that when you put them in a microwave, they resonate and the energy builds up until the juice boils and creates an ionized gas, and then arcs across the two halves. We tried it with blueberries too, as they're almost the same size. It did work, but not quite as well. They don't taste very good afterwards. Here's what plasma physics on grapes looks like: