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Measure The Speed Of Light With Your Microwave

Posted by Hemos on from the godiva-or-hershey dept.

maddmike writes "There is a very interesting article on About.com that shows how to measure the speed of light using your microwave to melt chocolate. "

5 of 296 comments (clear)

  1. Kids... by JessLeah · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...don't try this at home. Theobroma cacao (chocolate) is a highly dangerous substance with known stimulant effects. It is also highly addictive and should be used with extreme caution. Overdose can cause morbid obesity, sluggishness, and death. Only qualified experts should handle this dangerous reagent at home.

    I am experienced at handling this most hazardous material. Please wrap it carefully in a heatproof container, and mail it to me. It will be disposed of properly. (burp)

    --
    Honey, I shrunk the Cygwin
  2. Measure The Speed Of... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...Your Local Fire Department by placing some metal in your microwave and putting a blanket over it. =P

  3. Spoiler by kinnell · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's 3x10^8 m/s

    --
    If I seem short sighted, it is because I stand on the shoulders of midgets
    1. Re:Spoiler by Captain+Nitpick · · Score: 5, Funny
      You are wrong by 207 542 m/s which is quite a large margin for keeping the Slashdot correction nazis at bay.

      On behalf of the Guild of Pedants and Correctors, I hereby state that a 0.0692% error is well within the acceptable error for most Slashdot posts.

      Quite frankly, we're usually happy if you people get within an order of magnitude of the correct value.

      (P.S. We really don't appreciate being called nazis. We may be fanatics, but we're not fascists.)
      --
      But then again, I could be wrong.
  4. Ants by BuilderBob · · Score: 5, Funny

    You can also measure the speed of light using ants, the ants are small enough that they can fit into the low energy points of the microwave.

    If you put some ants in the microwave, and switch it on, they all start moving from the heat into the cold spots, measure the distance between the cold spots and you have the wavelength.

    Obviously, you shouldn't *actually* try this, unless the ants happen to climb in there looking for food, then they're fair game :) And take the turntable out, that's cruel.

    The calculation (chocolate or ants) does still rely on prior knowledge of the frequency of the microwave(s) being used. Trying to measure the speed of light without a prior fixed frequency or wavelength is much more taxing. A shortwave radio can help though, or a flashlight and a large telescope (bouncing signals off the moon)