Can you make the 4th state of matter in your microwave?
I am trying this the second I get home, but even if I get the same results as the video I was wondering if that glow is really plasma.
Why wouldn’t it be?
A candle flame is partially plasma, too.
(Long and pedantic discussion here.)
I destroyed a microwave in college doing this, it was very cool.
Grapes are pretty reliable, but if you are having trouble, take a single grape and cut it almost in half, leaving just a tiny bit of skin joining the two halves. Open the cut grape up so that the cut sides of both halve are facing up and put that in the microwave.
Other vegetables will sometimes create arcing in a microwave, but nowhere near as reliably. Depends on the soil that the vegetables were grown in (specifically, the mineral content). Mixed vegetables, green beans, carrots, and cut up green peppers can all sometimes arc. I don’t know if they actually create plasma like a grape does, but it’s a pretty light show either way.
If you are looking for other fun things to put in a microwave, a CD makes a good light show (completely destroys the CD), as does steel wool.
WARNING!!! All of this is a bit harsh on the microwave’s magnetron (the part that makes the radio waves). The magnetron in a modern microwave is a bit more rugged than the magnetrons in earlier microwaves, but even so you can still break it.
In case you are wondering what a magnetron is and how it works:
An old-fashioned radio transmitter, like they used to use in radar sets, was just a magnetron, a waveguide (a square tube to make the radio waves go where you want them to go) and an antenna. Replace the antenna with an enclosed box, so the radio waves just bounce around inside the box instead of being transmitted out into the air, and you’ve got a microwave oven.
We tried various things in my old microwave in my Science department at school. Best were CDs (secure upright), iron wool and lit magnesium. Careful!
I had some unexpected kitchen fireworks a few weeks ago when microwaving some sliced purple onions.