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[on:]

There's a show (foreign to me so I find out a bit late) called Dara Briain's Science Club. It's interesting to say the least.

So anyway on one episode they show how to calculate the speed of light using cheese on bread in a micowave oven. The how is by disabling the turntable, cooking for a short time and measuring the distance between hot spots where the cheese started to melt. That goes into an equation... I guess based on interference (at least that's what we used in physics class 1973) to get the wavelength which multiplied by the frequency got them within 7% of the actual value.

That using a pocket scale to measure distance between 2 melt spots in cheese as the experiment data gathering is just pure brilliance to me.

[Reply #1 on:]

Fabulous!
I googled and found this
- http://english.martinvarsavsky.net/internet-technology/measuring-the-speed-of-light-melting-cheese-in-a-microwave-oven.html -

[Reply #2 on:]

There's a show (foreign to me so I find out a bit late) called Dara Briain's Science Club. It's interesting to say the least.

So anyway on one episode they show how to calculate the speed of light using cheese on bread in a micowave oven. The how is by disabling the turntable, cooking for a short time and measuring the distance between hot spots where the cheese started to melt. That goes into an equation... I guess based on interference (at least that's what we used in physics class 1973) to get the wavelength which multiplied by the frequency got them within 7% of the actual value.

That using a pocket scale to measure distance between 2 melt spots in cheese as the experiment data gathering is just pure brilliance to me.

Awesome! We kind of do that for speed of sound and sound wavelength measurement. Can you be just a bit more "scientific" with ruled paper in the microwave instead of cheese?

[Reply #3 on:]

Fabulous!
I googled and found this
- http://english.martinvarsavsky.net/internet-technology/measuring-the-speed-of-light-melting-cheese-in-a-microwave-oven.html -

The kid was a bit overconfident with calculators and didn't know what order of magnitude he's talking about. The wavelength is abou 12cm but you should see marks 6cm apart if there is a standing wave. I can't trust their measurement. Why not using that sliced cheese? Someone waiting to make a sandwich with it?

[Reply #4 on:]

In the show they got 6.5 cm. I think they used cheese slices for the huh? factor.

I see full episodes are up on Youtube. It should start at 41 mins into this ep:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t0EgviIbR0

Anyway this is a cheap ploy to get people to watch a very interesting series.

[Reply #5 on:]

Anyway this is a cheap ploy to get people to watch a very interesting series.

Think most people get appetite for something with molten cheese on it ... (why must I think of Homer Simpson suddenly

[Reply #6 on:]

I just watched episode 6 which is about music. They are all stimulating shows.

[Reply #7 on:]

this wouldnt work because farnsworth said that in 2208 scientists increased the speed of light.