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The Phenomenon
This phenomenon is something that I first encountered on a visit to my grandmother’s house in the spring of 1997. She had heard about on a show where people would phone in science questions and then a panel would try to answer them. Someone phoned in with this question, and the rest of the show was spent with both the panel and callers making hypotheses about why it was happening. This details both the basic procedure used to make the sparks and every variation on this procedure which was tried in an attempt to limit the possible explanations. It will also discuss limitations in equipment, which are the main reason this essay can discuss only probable causes instead of offering a hard-fast answer to the research question.
Materials:
A microwave with a stirrer (600W) Seedless green grapes
A microwave with a turntable (600W) Stainless steel knife
Seedless red grapes Ceramic plate
Basic Procedure:
Cut grape in two equal halves, leaving the two halves attached by a small flap of skin. Open up and place on the ceramic plate (it seems to be irrelevant whether or not the grapes are placed cut side down, or if they are placed cut side up.) Place the grape halves inside a microwave oven. If it has a turntable, be sure to set them in the exact center so they move as little as possible. (The reasoning behind this placement will be explained in the next section.) Turn the microwave on high for 10 seconds.
Record all observations. (Because you are microwaving such a small amount of matter, most of the microwaves will not be absorbed and there is a chance they can reflect back to the magnetron and damage it. If sparking does not result after 5-7 seconds, or if sparking ceases for any reason, abort the experiment to avoid more harm then is necessary to the microwave oven for the purposes of science.) Repeat as many times as deemed necessary for uniformity of data. Observations:
After approximately 3-5 seconds of microwaving, a bright light and loud buzzing sound was observed at the junction between the grape halves, where they were connected by the flap of skin. The light seems to be primarily sparks but partly flame. After about 2 seconds of this, (7 seconds into the procedure) smoke started to be observed rising from the junction between the grapes. One of two things would happen next.
Either the juice of the grapes would boil over and extinguish the flames (this usually happened when the grapes were placed cut side down), or the skin bridge would break and the grapes would fall apart, also ending the sparks. (This happened when the grape was placed cut side up, but not if the grapes were placed so the leaned against each other instead of relying on the skin to hold them together. Thus, because the sparks lasted longer, most variations on this procedure were performed cut side up.) The post experimental grapes were singed along the edge where the skin bridge had been. Usually the skin had burnt off the surface of the grape 0.5 mm to 0.7 mm from the bridge. If the grapes were in a turntable microwave, the sparks were more constant then if they were in a stirrer microwave.