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Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Leftover Chocolate, Microwave Ovens, and the Speed of Light

"Leftover Valentine's Chocolate? Use It to Measure the Speed of Light"
Kathy Ceceri, GeekDad, Wired (February 15, 2010)

"If you're a long-time reader, you may remember the great leftover Easter Peeps microwave experiment. Well, today we're going to be nuking leftover Valentine's Day chocolate to demonstrate one of the constants of physics, the speed of light. Chocolate makes a very appropriate medium, because the heating property of microwaves was first discovered by a scientist whose candy bar melted in his pocket when he got too close to a microwave device being tested for use in radar...."

The author tells what's involved in the physics, how to set up the microwave oven - and how to avoid "familial strife" over chocolate.

And (kudos!) tells where she found the information.

If you've heard of this before: I'm not surprised. As Ceceri says, "it can be found all over the Internet".

Bottom line? This looks like fun, it's educational - and you can eat the results. Not bad at all.

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