Wierd Science

What do you get, when you cross a sixth grader, a microwave and various household objects?? A half hour of fun and laughs, that's what! The sixth grade class, curious as to how plasma worked, decided to take matters into their own hands. One of them saw an old microwave at the dump, and brought it in. Our fabu 6th grade science teacher went out on the internet and did some research about the way different objects would react in the microwave. This afternoon,
we tested it out... Plasma, according to whatisit.com.. defines this as part of it's answer:


"An atom that has lost some of its electrons, thereby attaining an electric charge, is an ion. When a gas is subjected to heat or an electric field, some of its atoms become ions, and the gas is said to be ionized. An ionized gas, unlike a gas in its normal condition, can conduct electrical current to a limited extent. If the heat or electric field becomes extreme, many of the atoms become ions. The resulting super-ionized gas is a plasma, which can conduct a large and sustained electric current."
This was by far the funniest thing that we put into the microwave. It started out it's life as a bar of safeguard soap. First it turned into an arch, then it grew out and up and this is the final results. We guessed if it would be soft or sticky or what.. and surprisingly it was sort of spongy. And did I mention the smell? Yah. Don't try any of this at home. Ok, maybe try the soap. Just cuz it was cooler than sh!t.. but that's it. The rest is just dangerously scarey.


The next best thing, was the light bulb. The light bulb gave off cool colors, and lit up the inside of the microwave. It glowed purple and orange and yellow, it went from dark to light and a myriad of things in between. We actually did the light bulb twice, just because it was so damn cool. The second time, we left the bulb in too long and it exploded. That was wicked pisser cool. And also, it scared the cr@p out of me. I was glad I wasn't up near the front.


This is a plate of various food items. I sacrificed my peeps, in the name of science.. and they puffed wayyyyyyyyyyyyy up, and then caramelized on the bottom. They shrunk down to a globular mess when they were done. It was cool. Worth the sacrifice. We also tried grapes, but alas they didn't work out quite like they were supposed too. Maybe because they were green? Not ripe enough? I don't know.



This last photo shows a cork that caught on fire, while in the middle of the experiment. That was wicked cool too.. but we didn't realize that the cork was on fire and it wasn't getting ready to glow like the first one did. Who knew school could be so much fun?!?!