Emergence: Someone please try this:

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Anonymous said...: It works well to use a line of chocolate chips across a plate too. That might be easier to make measurements on as well.; 2:28 PM
Zosia A. C. Krusberg said...: wait, this actually works???

i'm gonna do it with my high schoolers.; 6:16 PM
Anonymous said...: One important thing though is to make sure the microwave doesn't have a turntable in it. You want the chocolate chips to be stationary.

Of course, the whole reason why you need a turntable in a microwave is because of this exact problem.

A couple of notes:
the frequency for the microwave should be on a label on the back of a microwave, something like 2.45 +- 0.01 GHz. Given that uncertainty and the measurement uncertainty from measuring chocolate chips, it makes an interesting experiment in error propagation too.; 4:09 PM
Anonymous said...: I did this last night just to make sure my memories were correct. Anyway, I think the web page you linked to is a little bit wrong. They throw in a factor of two in calculating the speed of light, but I found a melt-distance of 12cm.

12cm*2.45 GHz=2.94*10^8 m/s

Kirsten wasn't impressed though since we took Sear's word on what the frequency was. It might be a better experiment to do backwards... measure the wavelength, use the known speed of light, and then check to see if the published frequency is correct.; 1:01 PM

Emergence