Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!fluke!ssc-vax!ray3rd
From: ray3rd@ssc-vax.UUCP (Ray E. Saddler III)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Nuking a lit cigarette
Summary: Ok you scientists, let's get to the *real* answer!
Message-ID: <3049@ssc-vax.UUCP>
Date: 13 Dec 89 18:04:23 GMT
References: <7224@hubcap.clemson.edu> <2575E75B.11408@paris.ics.uci.edu> <129144@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>
Distribution: na
Organization: Boeing Aerospace & Electronics, Seattle WA
Lines: 30

In article <129144@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>, landauer@morocco.Sun.COM (Doug Landauer) writes:
# 
# # # P.S. ... ever tried to microwave a lit cigarette?
# #
#
# Anyway, here's what I -- er, uh, someone I used to know, yeah, that's
# it -- did:  [explains a spoon-holder assembly...]
# assembly into the microwave, and turn it on.  What happened was that
# the microwave buzzed real loud, and there was a moving, flickering
# light in the air inside the oven.  [spoon gets wasted...]
# 
# The best part was that flickering light -- it looked like lightning in
# there.  My guess is that the (not quite fully-oxidized) smoke particles
# in the air inside the oven were igniting.  Another theory is that the
# chemicals that they put in the cigarette to keep it burning were
# evaporating and then igniting.  All in all, it was pretty impressive.
#

Isn't cigarette tobacco treated with saltpeter (sp?) to keep it
burning?  I think this may be what caused the lightning...as far as
the spoon catching fire goes, I've never had luck nuking things that
have solid plastic in it's make-up, I remember one time trying to
pop the "old maids" left over in a Pop Secret (tm) bag...clipped it
shut with a plastic paperclip...bad idea!  Oh yeah, stapling the bag
shut causes lots-o-burnage as well!
-- 
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