***If you cut a grape into two halves but keep them connected then after a few seconds of microwaving them a small ball of plasma will explode. This originally viral video turned physics mystery may be solved.***

<center>![grapes690230_1920.jpg](https://files.steempeak.com/file/steempeak/kralizec/QB1yTJa8-grapes-690230_1920.jpg)</center>

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It all started with viral videos back in 2011 in which you can see split grapes explode. All you need to do to achieve the same result is to cut a grape in half but keep a bit of skin connecting them. Then just put them into the microwave and after a few short seconds, a small fiery ball will appear.

What was really interesting, is the fact that nobody really knew why it was happening. But yet it was no fake, you can go and try it right now at home. Many hypothesis were formed over time, for example, one of the popular ones stated that the grapes somehow create an antenna that redirects the microwaves over the skin connecting the grapes.

Whole scientific teams were dedicated to solving the mystery and it seems the mystery has finally been solved by a trio of Canadian physicists lead by Hamza Khattak from the Trent University. They claim the explosion of the tiny plasma ball is the result of the creation of hot spots that get created inside the halves of the grapes thanks to the microwaves.

Khattak and his team performed a series of interesting experiments in which they studied the grapes behavior and also the behavior of similar objects inside a microwave. They goal was to figure out what is the true reason for the plasma explosions. They used a thermocamera which was used to observe what exactly is going on. Apart from that, they used computer simulations and they also tested similarly sized fruit and balls of plastic filled with water.

In the end, it was shown the plasma explosions occur thanks to a simple process. When microwave get inside the grape halves hot spots get created. And they are where the two halves are the closest – right next to the connection of the little piece of skin remaining. The hot spots warm up more and more and then a ball of plasma get made and explodes to the cheers of happy viewers.

The scientists also found that it’s not only grapes that makes this happen. Similar stuff will happen with other fruit of similar sizes and even with the water filled plastic balls. And you don’t even need to keep a connection between the objects. All you need is to have the objects closer than 3 millimeters to each other.

**Sources:**
* https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/02/13/1818350116/tab-article-info
* https://phys.org/news/2019-02-physicists-fireballs-erupting-grapes-microwave.html

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