Jim Choate <ravage@einstein.ssz.com> wrote:
You take a toothpick and place it on a holder. Light it. Place a large glass bowl (a fishbowl is acceptable) over the burning toothpick with something holding the bowl off the floor of the microwave (so the toothpick stays lit). Crank up the microwave on high for about 10 seconds. Walah.
There are variations on this that are quite interesting, although they will probably damage your microwave (then again, the one I've been doing it with for years still makes my ramen in three minutes :-) First off, get rid of the glass bowl and forget about the ten second time limit. Both are unnecessary, and they reduce the size and lifetime of the plasmoids (although they may damage the microwave--- then again, as mentioned above, mine still works). Second, experiment with different spots in your microwave. Especially in older microwaves, some places are more powerful than others. If you put your burning {paper, toothpick, dishrag, charcoal} in one of these "hot spots," suddenly your plasmoids will appear sooner, last longer, and look cooler. If your microwave has a turning tray, place the medium on the tray to begin with, and observe where the plasmoid activity is the greatest. Once you find the hot spot, remove the carousel and put the medium in that spot. Finally, and potentially the coolest, play around with your burning medium. Paper works better than toothpicks in general because the bigger the flame, the bigger the plasmoids. I like to use newspaper and toilet paper. Perhaps the most spectacular show I've ever seen came from a small bit of crushed charcoal on a bed of fine steel wool. For this one, you don't have to light it---the steel wool will glow hot enough to light the charcoal and produce the plasmoids. If it doesn't work, you're probably using too much charcoal. The only things you should really avoid are large sheets of metal (aluminum foil, etc). These tend to reflect the microwave energy very well and turn your microwave into a dog welder :-) Of course, I disclaim any and all liability associated with the above. I will accept no responsibility in the case that you injure yourself or anyone else while trying this. -- Riad Wahby rsw@mit.edu MIT VI-2/A 2002 5105