Author: Robby Berman / Source: Big Think
- Two grape halves heated in a microwave produce light-emitting ionized gas, or plasma.
- The grapes collect and trap microwaves whose energy eventually bursts outward.
- The discovery could lead to passive microwave antennas.
One of the internet’s favorite mysteries has been what happens to an everyday grape nearly split in halves and put in a microwave: After about five seconds the grape produces a dramatic flash of plasma.
Here’s what it looks like. Has this mystery been keeping you up at night? Even if it hasn’t, it’s been a puzzler. Now, though, a paper from three Canadian physicists has been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and it finally explains what’s going on.What’s plasma, anyway?
Plasma is the fourth state of matter, the others being solids, liquids, and gases. Most of the material in the universe, by a long shot, is plasma. Plasma starts with gas into which enough energy is introduced that it heats up and its electrons become excited to the point that they’re ripped away from their atoms and molecules. The result is plasma, a dynamic stew of negatively charged electrons frantically bouncing around positively charged air molecules and positively charged nuclei, or ions. Plasma’s light comes from its electrons flipping back and forth between excited and de-excited states in response to the energy driving the whole process. It’s technically a light-producing ionized gas.
Turning grapes into plasma
(Slepkov, et al)
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