Why Is my Cookie arcing in Microwave?

I bought some chocolate chip cookies from the bakery inside Safeway here in Belfair, WA and my mom went to heat one up in the microwave it started arcing inside the microwave throwing sparks and some fairly sizeable flame ups. It wasnt even on a plate just on the glass inside the microwave. We tried a couple different cookies and they all did the same thing.

I've assured my family that they have in fact been adulteratred with brain controlling nano bots.

They want to know, and I put this in their derisive terms, if anyone has any less "paranoid" or "non delusional" theories.

I've assured my family that they have in fact been adulteratred with brain controlling nano bots.

I see no other explanation. Especially on April 1st.



Now fill an empty household cleaner bottle with water and start drinking it in front of them, claiming you need to "kill the bots".

Wow.

Unless the cookies contain a whole heap of metal.....I'd say that they were too dry.

Lacking sufficient moisture will also make them arc as there is nothing to absorb the em wave.

Why would you put a cookie in the microwave?

Pics or it didnt happen.

Originally posted by BrokenCircles
Why would you put a cookie in the microwave?

I can't speak for the OP. But I believe to heat it up.

reply to post by Josephus


I imagine you inadvertently created some plasma....It's actually quite easy to do, if you do it correctly. In your case, I'd imagine it was just a freak occurrence, but you can create plasma in a microwave oven any number of ways...the most popular being to use a carefully prepared grape.



Also a candle works quite well too!

reply to post by BrokenCircles


my Mom puts just about any baked item bought at the store into the microwave. It could be a week old donut or an entemanns packed with so many preservatives it's not quite real anymore and after a trip through the microwave she'll be like "yumm, fresh baked."

Disable cookies on your microbrowserwave.
Your tasty baked snacks are tracking you.

reply to post by bhornbuckle75


yeah I've done the thing with the grape before and I've heard that the greens on a carrot can ignite in the microwave but I didn't think a dry cookie had anything that could create such a reaction.

reply to post by Josephus


there is aluminum in some baking powders....

www.earthclinic.com...

reply to post by AnimositisominA


I felt that coming when I posted. I'll try but I don't have a digital camera. Also I dont want to ruin the magnetron.

reply to post by bhornbuckle75

Amazing videos! Do you have an "explanation for dummies" as to what is happening and why? Not that I have a microwave but it is cool.

ETA OP Like a previous poster noted, some foods have notoriously high aluminium content but whether that is the reason, I couldn't say. I remember tea and baking mixes such as cake mix being fairly near the top of the list. I think it comes from the processing of those foods but memory is bad. Previous posters link has probably more info than my sieve-like memory.

They must be cookie robots like in the movie Despicable Me.

Originally posted by Josephus
reply to post by bhornbuckle75

 

yeah I've done the thing with the grape before and I've heard that the greens on a carrot can ignite in the microwave but I didn't think a dry cookie had anything that could create such a reaction.

Yeah, I agree....I imagine it was a total freak occurrence. The cookie was probably contaminated somehow...Or perhaps a hot spot formed on it, causing a tiny flame which immediately burst into some plasma (not unlike in the candle example)

reply to post by OccamAssassin


that's interesting so if i dunk it in milk and nuke it and no sparks then problem solved, right?

reply to post by OccamAssassin


Well looks like these are some exceptionally dry cookies a moistened cookie doesn't arc. I think you were right.

Or (dramatic close up of a cookie on a dish drying) the milk simply insulated the surface of the nanobots.

Originally posted by LightSpeedDriver
reply to post by bhornbuckle75

 

Amazing videos! Do you have an "explanation for dummies" as to what is happening and why? Not that I have a microwave but it is cool.

ETA OP Like a previous poster noted, some foods have notoriously high aluminium content but whether that is the reason, I couldn't say. I remember tea and baking mixes such as cake mix being fairly near the top of the list. I think it comes from the processing of those foods but memory is bad. Previous posters link has probably more info than my sieve-like memory.

edit on 1/4/12 by LightSpeedDriver because: ETA

Well here's a good explanation for the grape www.reallybored.net...

I didn't find a really great explanation for how the flame one works (but then again I don't have the time to do a thorough search at the moment).....I did however come across what appears to be a really fascinating paper about using a microwave induced plasma to levitate an object!


www.odu.edu...

If the cookies were baked on aluminum foil and they were careless about it, small pieces of the foil might be stuck on the bottom of the cookie and cause the microwave to arc. People (and possibly bakeries) use aluminum foil to bake cookies on because it makes the clean-up easy....just bake the cookies, then throw the foil away, and the pan stays clean.

reply to post by bhornbuckle75

Thank you and I wasn't asking you to search for me, like I said, explanation for dummies as most of the severely technical stuff goes right over my head. The first link you supplied I could follow and understand (3000 degrees? ) but the technical paper is I think going right over my head. Thanks again.