You CAN melt glass in a microwave (microwaves explained) - Filmed from the inside #3

The concept that you can melt glass in a microwave oven - as long as you heat the area to near-melting with a blow torch first - seems like a bit of a cheat.

Steve Mould does go on to explain how microwave radiation works to heat food - causing the water molecules in the liquid state to vibrate in the microwave field. This is based on the polarity of the water molecule as well as its ability to freely move.

If the water were locked in a solid lattice (like in ice), those molecules aren't able to vibrate back and forth nearly as easily, hence why ice doesn't heat - or defrost - well in a microwave.

And Mould uses that to his advantage to take glass to the nearly-molten stage, allowing the molecules to move freely and absorb the microwave radiation causing them to heat more and move more freely. He doesn't, sadly, explain why the glass molecules - a network of SiO₂ as far as I know - respond to the microwave field similarly to how water does.

Stand-up comedy routine about bad science

(Heads up, non-school appropriate word at 6:37...and another at 7:21)

So, I was watching a stupid cooking video recently in which the 'chef' made a jiggly cake.

And this shot came up on the video at 1:14...

...and I got bothered.

First off, multiplying three dimensions should give you cubic units not squared units.

Secondly, converting from inches to centimeters requires you to multiply by 2.54. Like 22 inches times 2.54 gives you 55.88 centimeters. It's not quite the 53, but it's close enough. Unless you have the units squared (or, more correctly, cubed). In that case you have to multiply by 2.54 squared (or, more correctly, cubed). 

See, if you're going to make a frivolous cooking video, you should at least get the math right. Sheesh...

If you're with me on that, then the video up top might be for you. In it, Steve Mould - he of the two instance potty mouth - goes through analyzing a statement, "The temperature outside an aeroplane is 6 times colder than the temperature inside a freezer."

And he analyzes the heck out of it, trying to figure out what '6 times colder' means and whether there is some objective temperature at which 'colder' begins - particularly for Canadians.

I enjoyed it, but it might not be everybody's cup of tea.

Non-Traditional Careers for Science Majors | Dr. Dwight Randle | TEDxMountainViewCollege

"Hey Mr Dusch, I really like chemistry. I'm thinking about becoming a chemical engineer."

Replace that last part with "becoming a chemist", and you have nearly every beginning of a career conversation that I have with my students.

See, chemistry leads to being a chemist or a chemical engineer. That's about it as far as the students know. 

I'm always happy to have a few other suggested paths available for my students.

I've had former students go into labware glass blowing, illustrations for science textbooks, digging up dinosaur bones in Wyoming, counting birds along the upper Mississippi River, and nuclear submarine engineering.

I was really hoping that I would get a few more suggestions for chemistry-adjacent careers paths that I could provide for my students. Sadly, that's not what the above video provides - in spite of the title of the video. Instead, we get told that scientists have historically been portrayed as loner white guys. Scientists don't all look like that now. And then we get advice to follow the career path that fits you.

Overall, meh...

The below video, however, is a bit of that science-adjacent career exploration. It's a speech by a scientific illustrator explaining how her career combines art and science and why it's better than just taking photos to illustrate the text.

How Microwaving Grapes Makes Plasma

Go ahead...do it at home.

Butterfly some grapes and throw them in the microwave.

It's fun. I've done it.

Here's a bit of a how-to...

I always assumed that the water just vaporized which then superheated as the microwaves went through the cloud. That doesn't explain, though, why grapes are so good at doing this.

Apparently it can be done without grapes. They tested using sodium polyacrylate (water gel) beads, and it worked, too.

Turns out there's a lot more to the phenomenon than just superheating the vapor. Apparently the microwaves change wavelength as they pass through the grape/water gel to just the right wavelength to almost exactly match the grape's length.

Fascinating stuff

Can you light a match with water?

My first teaching job was at Terre Haute South Vigo High School in Terre Haute, Indiana.

At THS (we pretty much just called it Terre Haute South), one of the other science teachers gave me a coiled copper tube that looks pretty much like what's shown in the video and was used for exactly what it's used for in the video.

I think I set the demonstration up once...maybe twice ever...and had that copper tube in my storage drawers at three separate schools. I can't remember offhand whether I brought it over to the new building. I think I'll check, though.

But, that's not what the video is about. The video shows how water can be heated to vapor which can then be superheated to a high enough temperature to set a match aflame.

The video also goes on to explain why the copper corrodes so thoroughly.

Kind of cool neat.

An Actually Good Explanation of Moles

This video is brilliant, and the title is surprisingly accurate.

I've been defining a mole for two and a half decades now, and I've never quite approached it from this angle. The mole is simply a quantity that relates the mass of different elements that react together.

I like that.

The rare property of pumpkin seed oil - dichromatism

(Warning: almost dirty word at 1:35)

Is pumpkin seed oil something that any of you have around your house?

I think we have vegetable oil, olive oil, peanut oil, baby oil, motor oil, and safflower oil. I'm pretty sure we don't have pumpkin seed oil.

In this video, Steve Mould breaks down how we see color (three cone cells in your eyes) and how translucent liquids show the colors that they show...especially how pumpkin seed oil shows two totally different colors depending on how deep the puddle of liquid is.

I wonder if there are any artistic uses for pumpkin seed oil.

(By the by, you can see a more accurate version of the pumpkin seed oil spectrum on wikipedia.)