Make popcorn with cellular phone

[D]

OK, damnit how did they do this? It's driving me insane!
http://gizmodo.com/5015932/cellphone-po ... th-headset

[Shatterhand]

There's a plate below the red towel that gets hot enough to make popcorn.That's it.

[Fenrir]

sad!1

[worstplayer]

This was on reddit some time ago. And of course it turned out to be bullshit.

Popcorn pops because the water in it turns to steam and a kernel is about 14% water. So, if we assume a kernel of popcorn weighs 1 gram, it has 0.13 grams of water. Heat that water from 30�C to 100�C would take:

(0.14g)*(100�C-3 to turn the water to steam requires he latent heat of vaporization, which is 2259J/g.

2259J*0.14g= 316J for a total of 316J 41J = 357J.

Wattage = Joules/seconds. If it took about 5 seconds to turn the water in the popcorn kernel to steam, then the wattage required was:

357J/5sec = 71W assuming all power from the cell phone transmitter went into the kernel.

Cell phones typically have 0.75W-1W transmitters in them. With a 1W transmitter, it would take,

334J/1W = 334secs, if all power is transfered to the kernel.

Conclusion: since the corn is popping in 5 seconds... completely fake.

edit - as pointed out, corn kernels weigh about 0.25g and there are 4 phones which could be up to 2W each. Therefore, the energy hitting the corn could be 16 times greater. But the other assumption (that all the power is focussed into the water content of just 1 kernel) is most likely wrong by a factor of 100 or more.

As for how they did it: Probably CGI.

[Ceph]

Shouldn't this topic be titled "You can't make popcorn with a cellphone (duh!)" ?

[ROBOTRON]

Cellphones use microwave technology...we all know microwave ovens pop popcorns. Most of us know threat that it has been suggested scientifically that holding a cellphone to your head for long periods of time gives you brain cancer.

However to pop kernels in less than a minute with low energy a cellphone uses is very unlikely.

I say the vid is faked.

[Damocles]

Wow...the science behind that is so incredibly wrong. Also, I love how the kernals only pop off-screen.

[Ed Oscuro]

Wow...the science behind that is so incredibly wrong.

The science is right, just not the magnitude of power outputted by a cellphone...

While cellphones will not fry your brain unless they somehow output far more power than they were designed to, they can and do have effects on your brain:

Study: Cell phone use disrupts sleep

The headline, taken by itself, would qualify for another of those "stupid headline" awards, and it really should read "cellphone radiation disrupts sleep."

[Damocles]

The science is right, just not the magnitude of power outputted by a cellphone...

While cellphones will not fry your brain unless they somehow output far more power than they were designed to, they can and do have effects on your brain:

Study: Cell phone use disrupts sleep

And that's the kicker...the microwaves aren't contained, they're not focused, and they are nowhere near the magnitude. ...makes me wonder, if that magnitude was obtained, what the battery life on those phones would be.

What's interesting to note is that, unlike the hoopla surrounding cell phones, microwave ovens pose no cancer risk.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Wow...the science behind that is so incredibly wrong.

The science is right, just not the magnitude of power outputted by a cellphone...

While cellphones will not fry your brain unless they somehow output far more power than they were designed to, they can and do have effects on your brain:

Study: Cell phone use disrupts sleep

The headline, taken by itself, would qualify for another of those "stupid headline" awards, and it really should read "cellphone radiation disrupts sleep."

All the more compelling reason to use your cellphone as little as possible these days...there's still the old-fashioned "landline" phones in use.

[Ceph]

Cellphone radiation isn't strong enough to cause any cellular mutation. This "cellphones give you brain cancer"-claim was utter nonsense and has been disproven recently. It was discovered that years ago an Austrian lab assistant had falsified the data this was based upon; empirical studies have shown that there is no connection between cancer and cellphones AT ALL.

[Frederik]

My bullshit alarm went off already when they argued "IT´S NOT GONNA WORK!" - "YEAH IT WILL YOU´LL SEE" - "I DON´T THINK SO" during the whole time. And those people are so obviously trying to pretend that they are not acting. Also, bad CGI.

Viral marketing is a real stinker to begin with, but when they try to do it on such a low, obvious level it´s even more insulting.

[Phil12]

Me and my friends tried this last week after seeing the video.

The only thing that happened was we got butter on the table.

[D]

I knew it was a hoax from the get-go, but I am still very curious as to how they did it. If it is cgi, then they did a very VERY good job.
I just watched it again and I just need to know. A doorless microwave?
The thing with the table cloth is that if they put a heating device underneath it, the table cloth would burn to ashes before the corn would get enough heat to pop. So, yup, it's still driving me mad, because I need to be able to explain everything and this is killing me
Some how I also very much like the term: "doorless microwave" now.
I went through some comments on youtube, but nothing really explains it.

[Ed Oscuro]

Is it possible that millions of people are ignorantly sacrificing their health in exchange for the convenience of microwave ovens? Why did the Soviet Union ban the use of microwave ovens in 1976?* Who invented microwave ovens, and why? The answers to these questions may shock you into throwing your microwave oven in the trash.

*Because our people already grumbled for more nylons and washing machines.