This was my key takeaway from chemistry class in highschool: sucrose burns hotter than acetylene.
Strawberry Pop-Tart Blow-Torches (1994)
31–40 of 53 posts
Re: Strawberry Pop-Tart Blow-Torches (1994)
#32In the mid 1990's someone in my office put pop tarts in the microwave and mis-typed the time by an extra digit or something and walked back to his desk. The entire 7 story building was evacuated and the fire department called because of the smoke. There was so much smoke everyone thought the building itself was on fire.
This probably happened a half dozen times a year when I was in college in the dorms. Total evac with everyone in their pjs on the sidewalk. Usually it would be people getting high and making ramen and forgetting the water. Othertimes, popcorn would be purposely burned to mask the smell of getting high.
Re: Strawberry Pop-Tart Blow-Torches (1994)
#33In the mid 1990's someone in my office put pop tarts in the microwave and mis-typed the time by an extra digit or something and walked back to his desk. The entire 7 story building was evacuated and the fire department called because of the smoke. There was so much smoke everyone thought the building itself was on fire.
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 microwave…
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.
Re: Strawberry Pop-Tart Blow-Torches (1994)
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 microwave…
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.
Re: Strawberry Pop-Tart Blow-Torches (1994)
#35I think I remember the last time this was posted here! Someone pointed out that "safety-related items" does not appear to include shoes as evidenced by Figure 5.
On another note, it's a really nicely crafted lab report. If I taught a science class I might use this as an example submission.
Re: Strawberry Pop-Tart Blow-Torches (1994)
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
Re: Strawberry Pop-Tart Blow-Torches (1994)
#37What about the control data with other pop tart flavors? Cinnamon sugar? Blueberry? S'mores? I want a tournament bracket for this
Re: Strawberry Pop-Tart Blow-Torches (1994)
#38In the mid 1990's someone in my office put pop tarts in the microwave and mis-typed the time by an extra digit or something and walked back to his desk. The entire 7 story building was evacuated and the fire department called because of the smoke. There was so much smoke everyone thought the building itself was on fire.
This probably happened a half dozen times a year when I was in college in the dorms. Total evac with everyone in their pjs on the sidewalk. Usually it would be people getting high and making ramen and forgetting the water. Othertimes, popcorn would be purposely burned to mask the smell of getting high.
Who has the time to add water to instant ramen when in college? Or heat for that matter. You dump the powder on the brick and eat it like the big block of crunchy msg it is.
Re: Strawberry Pop-Tart Blow-Torches (1994)
#39There are oddly few good videos of poptarts making huge flames[1]... but I did find one! (edit: same video, but use KennyBlanken's youtube link below instead) https://videosift.com/video/Mr-Science-Strawberry-Pop-Tart-B... Given the description, maybe it's even related to this site?
Honestly that's pretty impressive. I know it says "10-18 inches", but yea... that's 10-18 inches. For a full minute. That's a serious house hazard.
[1]: I expected them to be all over. "Common things making unexpectedly large fires" is, like, 10% of the internet, right? But no, it's just a rare handful of actual matches in a sea of unrelated search results.
Re: Strawberry Pop-Tart Blow-Torches (1994)
#40There are oddly few good videos of poptarts making huge flames[1]... but I did find one! (edit: same video, but use KennyBlanken's youtube link below instead) https://videosift.com/video/Mr-Science-Strawberry-Pop-Tart-B... Given the description, maybe it's even related to this site? Honestly that's pretty impressive. I know it says "10-18 inches", but yea... that's 10-18 inches. For a full minute. That's a serious ho…
Video minus blogspam:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfrhfMioIj4
Definitely does look like it was by the same people, and the bit about "waking the neighbors" is a bit of artistic license.