Electric Grape Experiment : This is a lunchtime "I am looking for ways to liven up the staffroom" type of thing, but here goes.
Get some healthy looking grapes, seedless if possible. Cut grape
almost in half across the perpendicular, so that you end up with two little half egg shapes, with a little hinge of grape skin still joining the halves. Place these joined halves on a micro-proof plate in the centre of the microwave. Put the microwave on high for about 30 seconds. This will be too long, so be prepared to press stop when the reaction occurs. Press "Start".
Grapes will go round and round, while you count Mississippi's - as in "one Mississippi, two Mississippi" for general effect. Somewhere between the 9 to 15 mark, electric sparks will arc across the little flap of skin, and it may even have little flames to match
![Shocked 8O](./images/smilies/shock1.gif)
. On a good day the two halves will actually blow apart.
![Very shocked :w00t:](./images/smilies/w00t.gif)
Laugh like a maniac, until you suddenly find yourself explaining to the HNIC why there is an electrical storm occuring in the microwave.
![Embarassed :oops:](./images/smilies/icon_redface.gif)
This then becomes justification for buying your own microwave for the prep room, where you can be crazy in private - more or less.
I have yet to discover why the grape skin sparks, and you may have to have a couple of goes, as sometimes the grapes themselves just boil on the inside and explode with no fun sparks at all - self-extinguishing really. Still, its good for a laugh on a slow day, in a Mythbusters kind of way.
Cheers, K
![Cool 8-)](./images/smilies/cool.gif)