# McDonalds Burger video
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-burger-video/749962
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [March 23, 2016, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-burger-video/749962 "2016-03-23T16:43:14Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Dante\_G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dante_G)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2016, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-burger-video/749962/1 "2016-03-23T16:43:14Z")
Can someone explain to me in basic science terms the whole deal with the “Molten Copper Poured Over McDonalds Burger” video gone viral. I heard a news report saying that its all scientific and has nothing to do with the quality of the food.
So whats the science?
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### Author:  [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2016, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-burger-video/749962/2 "2016-03-23T16:49:33Z")
> [@Dante\_G](#):
>
> Can someone explain to me in basic science terms the whole deal with the “Molten Copper Poured Over McDonalds Burger” video gone viral. I heard a news report saying that its all scientific and has nothing to do with the quality of the food.
>
> So whats the science?
the molten copper heats the water still in the bun, which flashes into steam, which lets the copper just roll right off of it.
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### Author:  [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2016, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-burger-video/749962/3 "2016-03-23T16:51:02Z")
The video claims that McDonald’s food is indestructible, and thus indigestible. As proof, molten copper is poured over a burger and rolls off without damaging it, at least at first.
But it’s something that would happen with any burger: the Leidenfrost effect. Moisture in the burger is super-heated to steam in an instant, and the steam layer then insulates the burger from the additional heat.
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### Author:  [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2016, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-burger-video/749962/4 "2016-03-23T16:52:09Z")
> **[Leidenfrost effect](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leidenfrost_effect)**
>
> The Leidenfrost effect is a physical phenomenon in which a liquid, close to a surface that is significantly hotter than the liquid's boiling point, produces an insulating vapor layer that keeps the liquid from boiling rapidly. Because of this repulsive force, a droplet hovers over the surface, rather than making physical contact with it. The effect is named after the German doctor Johann Gottlob Leidenfrost, who described it in A Tract About Some Qualities of Common Water.
> This is most commonly ...
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### Author:  [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2016, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-burger-video/749962/5 "2016-03-23T17:03:20Z")
They did it on Mythbusters. One of them put his hands in water and then brief dunked a finger into molten metal. He was fine. OMG human fingers are indestructible!!1 :rolleyes:
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### Author:  [@Dante\_G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dante_G)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2016, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-burger-video/749962/6 "2016-03-23T17:04:36Z")
Awesome… Thanks all!
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### Author:  [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2016, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-burger-video/749962/7 "2016-03-23T18:30:18Z")
> [@Bricker](#):
>
> The video claims that McDonald’s food is indestructible, and thus indigestible. As proof, molten copper is poured over a burger and rolls off without damaging it, at least at first.
As additional proof of indestructability, note the way ones teeth simply deflect off the burger without so much as scratching the bun. :smack:
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2016, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-burger-video/749962/8 "2016-03-23T18:48:14Z")
[Snopes page](http://www.snopes.com/viral-molten-copper-big-mac/). Includes said video.
Which is pretty trippy.
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### Author:  [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2016, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-burger-video/749962/9 "2016-03-23T19:49:58Z")
Now I want a Big Mac. Hold the molten copper.
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2016, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-burger-video/749962/10 "2016-03-23T22:13:48Z")
McBurgers made from Cows From Krypton!
Now try dousing with molten kryptonite.
ETA: I just googled that for me! Surprise! [Cows from Krypton](http://www.classifiedny.com/classifieds/ads/kentucky/krypton/cows-for-sale) is a real thing!
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### Author:  [@excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/excavating_for_a_mind)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2016, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-burger-video/749962/11 "2016-03-24T00:35:45Z")
> [@running\_coach](#):
>
> [Snopes page](http://www.snopes.com/viral-molten-copper-big-mac/). Includes said video.
> Which is pretty trippy.
That’s odd. The burger did, indeed, burst into flames, as one (at least, as I) would expect. What do the people who spread such stuff expect the burger to do? Melt?
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### Author:  [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2016, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-burger-video/749962/12 "2016-03-24T00:39:00Z")
> [@excavating\_for\_a\_mind](#):
>
> That’s odd. The burger did, indeed, burst into flames, as one (at least, as I) would expect. What do the people who spread such stuff expect the burger to do? Melt?
they don’t know. they’re just champing at the bit to blame McDonald’s for all the world’s ills, so they’ll do whatever they can to smear them.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2016, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-burger-video/749962/13 "2016-03-24T01:23:02Z")
> [@excavating\_for\_a\_mind](#):
>
> What do the people who spread such stuff expect the burger to do? Melt?
What would be a reasonable expectation for a layman to have when confronted with a video of **molten metal** being poured over a hamburger? Me, I expected it to melt a hole in the top of the bun and then kind of burn outwards, like the alien blood in _Alien_. I certainly was not expecting it to roll off the top like water from a duck’s back.
Now, going nutso and claiming that McDonald’s burgers are ‘indestructible’ is silly, but being surprised at the contents of the video doesn’t make somebody a moron.