For people who want to try making plasma from grapes in a microwave, here are the steps that work for me every time (I’ve done it for friends and highschoolers about 20 times)
1. Cut a large grape (1.5cm diameter) partially in half, leaving just a sliver of skin connecting the two halves.
2. Dry the cut sides by dabbing with a paper towel.
3. Place the grape halves cut side down on a Pyrex dish. Keep the turntable in the microwave (important, since microwaves have hotspots). Place the dish with the grape so that the grape orbits inside the microwave.
4. Microwave on high for 30s.
If you don’t hear a hum and see sparks within 10 seconds, you may have too large a grape. In that case you can try splitting the grape into two quarters, connected by a thin sliver of skin. Don’t forget to dry all the cut sides!
I've never dried the surfaces, and I put the cut sides up. Also never fails. Gonna try cut-side down when my kid gets up (and if we have some grapes); that might look (even) cooler.
I suppose if the grape is in a puddle of electrolyte, it can short out the quarter wave antenna. So drying probably only matters if your grape is very juicy!
While similar substitutes does also let you make some crude sparks, it turns out that the composition and quality of the grapes are crucial in the finessed focusing of energy needed for this application.
Only the grapes grown in vineyards of the finest châteaux are capable of achieving the maximum performance needed for bleeding edge grapetronics.
This propels France into a quantum computing superpower, being in sole control of the limited quantity coveted by nation states as strategic assets, with anciliary equipment such as Taiwanese microwave ovens manufactured by Tatung becoming a critical link in the supply chain.
This might be a good candidate for the 2025 Ig Nobel prize in physics [1].
More seriously, NV centers are one of the most accessible quantum hardware platforms, and do very sensitive measurements on all kinds of interesting stuff.
Immediately ran to the domestic microwave to try generating sparks and plasma with grapes. No success so far, building transparent Tupperware explosion containers before continuing
if you can't get it to work with two whole grapes touching you can also try to cut a grape almost in half, leave a tiny bit of the skin connected and place it folded open with the cut facing up.
Claude, can you please explain this for someone with a high school level understanding of science?
I'll break this down into simpler terms!
You might have seen viral videos or heard about what happens when you put two grapes in a microwave - they create impressive sparks and even plasma (which is like a super-hot, glowing gas, similar to what's in those plasma ball toys).
The key points of this paper are:
First, some background:
- When two grapes are placed close together in a microwave, they act like a special kind of antenna or lens for microwave energy
- This creates an incredibly intense concentration of energy between the grapes (they call this a "hotspot")
What's new in this research:
- The scientists used tiny diamonds that contain special defects called nitrogen-vacancy centers (think of these like extremely sensitive sensors)
- They placed these special diamonds between two grapes in a controlled setup
- Using these diamond sensors, they could measure how strong the magnetic field was between the grapes
- They found that the magnetic field between the grapes was twice as strong as it would be normally
Why this matters:
- Previous research only looked at the electric fields between the grapes
- This study confirms that grapes can also concentrate magnetic fields
- This could be useful for quantum computing and other advanced technologies that need precise control of magnetic fields
Think of it like this: If you put two magnifying glasses next to each other, they can concentrate light into a very bright spot. The grapes are doing something similar, but with microwaves instead of light. The scientists used special diamonds as a tool to measure just how concentrated this "microwave spot" becomes.
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I don't even try reading stuff like this on my own anymore. Maybe I'm just dumber than most, but I find Claude's explanation so much more accessible.
1. Cut a large grape (1.5cm diameter) partially in half, leaving just a sliver of skin connecting the two halves.
2. Dry the cut sides by dabbing with a paper towel.
3. Place the grape halves cut side down on a Pyrex dish. Keep the turntable in the microwave (important, since microwaves have hotspots). Place the dish with the grape so that the grape orbits inside the microwave.
4. Microwave on high for 30s.
If you don’t hear a hum and see sparks within 10 seconds, you may have too large a grape. In that case you can try splitting the grape into two quarters, connected by a thin sliver of skin. Don’t forget to dry all the cut sides!