How To Calculate The Speed Of Light With Your Microwave

You may think your microwave is good only for making popcorn or heating up last night's leftovers. But with a big chocolate bar and a little ingenuity, you can use use your microwave to calculate the speed of light.

Voice Over: Phil Anderson

Science Advisor: Becky Thompson, PhD
Head of Public Outreach, APS Physics
www.APS.org

Science Advisor: Toni Sauncy, PhD
Director, Society of Physics Students & Sigma Pi Sigma, American Institute of Physics

Producer: Rebecca Adams
Videographer/Editor: Amber Genuske
Animation: Noelle Campbell

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[julietblue]

"YOU! Not a physicist"

I am literally so insulted right now. I didn't spend four years getting a physics degree to be called "not a physicist".

[joshherrera]

I'm going to copy this for my science project heheheheh

[DaniPaunov]

The distance between the melt spots should be exactly 6.1176016684 ± centimeters, assuming the speed of light travels 1.0001 times slower in air than in a vacuum (for a Hz microwave)

[kieran_stainton]

bruh my science teacher was like you are going to lose marks for creativity just because some dude presented this project two years ago!!! wow im like its the speed of light, must i find my own formula for the black hole??

[LeoABPgamingTV]

Anybody else got an urge to eat some chocolate after watching this video?

[rantao]

I have this experiment for my research paper this year and I found a problem when I actually did this experiment. The microwave produce a 3D and very complex microwave, the microwave will reflect when they reach the wall of the microwave oven. I tried several times but I can't get what I want, the distance between two wholes is always unclear. After that I went to google the design of the microwave, I found that there is a a turntable or metal wave guide stirring fan. So my conclusion is this thing "stir" the microwave and the position of the antinodes is kind of random(or very complex to calculate)

[scorpionz]

who knew huff post would basically right my lab report

[nineball]

This is really clever! (Though the animation is standing waves which are what creates nodes and antinodes.)

[lupuskproductions]

i kept picturing the guy talking was Chris Pratt... they sounds similar. maybe just to me idk.

[ACABSTUDIOS]

Somebody better have ate that chocolate!

[missyckboo]

Tried this for a physics take-home lab and it worked! But it took way longer than 25 sec on low heat

[chaseadorno]

thanks man helped me a bunch with science fair.

[DaniPaunov]

If you have the option, turn off the spinning instead of removing the tray

[naniyos]

i'm doing this for phy research and i need to have a variable. What could be my variable in this experiment?? please answer

[LingenfelderCollinCo]

That is why science is so 'extremely' cool. I'd never come across that formula for measuring the speed of light. Thanks!

[Vlad-qrsf]

Just put the chocolate in the fridge, wait a few hours and your friend will want to eat it.

[montanaprime]

Lol, I was told this by my prof. I have to try it soon.

[AdamChyea]

Oh my goodness. How much free time do you have? lol

[Laurendoesflips]

Okay great but it was bugging me that I could not figure out how is it the speed of light when microwaves emit microwaves? Wouldn't it just calculate the speed of a microwave? Microwaves and light waves both travel at the same speed which is 3X10^8 m/s...ya know just in case anyone was losing sleep over it.

[Avie-]

Speed of light is actually very slow amoug the universe