Can You Put Pencil Lead In The Microwave

Claim

A video shows how you lot can easily brand diamonds, metal orbs, vegan leather, crystals, and egg-related items.

Reporting

Advertisements On March xvi 2019, the Facebook folio "Bloom" shared a video entitled "8 mind-blowing transformations you can do at home!" to its folio and to Facebook Watch.

The video raked in a massive 58 meg views in just a few days, and its claims were big ones. In a series of DIY/hack montages similar to perplexing content produced by Troom Troom, Blossom purportedly shows viewers how to:

Make a "diamond" from a pencil pb and a microwave;
Make drinking glass by heating sand with a kitchen blowtorch;
Brand a shiny metallic orb by oiling and polishing tinfoil;
Brand crystals by microwaving a rock for three minutes;
Make crystals past adding table salt to water;
Brand century eggs quickly with Coca-Cola and an egg;
Remove an eggshell with vinegar.

microwave-diamonds-tinfoil-ball-blowtorch-glass-vegan-leather

For its commencement "hack" involving "pencil lead diamonds," on start watch you lot can run across the gem purportedly produced is far wider than the source pencil "lead" seen in the video. Those who attempted to do an initial research of their own might have been initially swayed by a core of results bearing headlines indicating that diamonds tin can indeed be fabricated in a microwave: "How to make diamonds: nether pressure or using microwaves," "Now you can make diamonds in a microwave," and a Reddit r/futurology thread, "Scientists have figured out a way to make diamonds in a microwave." A commenter on the latter, shared on Apr ten 2018, notes:

Although information technology should be mentioned you lot tin can't do this with an average microwave. It has to be a very powerful and specialized lab one.

An page published on a university'due south website adds that the process of using a "microwave" to make diamonds "ordinarily [takes] a few weeks" (not seconds.)

More of interest, and more to the point, is an undated Instructables page called: "How to Prank the Instructables Customs." In it, the user explains an Apr Fools' Day prank in which they fabricate a method to create diamonds in a microwave. The person who posted information technology adds:

Everything in my photos is 100% existent. It's my explanations of what's in the photos that's false. I did apply oil on the thread; only the thread wasn't 100% cotton. I did nuke the graphite in my microwave; simply only for nearly 10 seconds (and it ARCED LIKE CRAZY). There was a lump of carbon left over; but it was overcooked angel pilus pasta, not diamond. I actually did brand the pendant in the last footstep; but it was just a crumb of burnt pizza crust encased in epoxy.

In other words, you cannot make diamonds from pencil lead using your home microwave. Related articles near laboratories making diamonds using forced heat might suggest otherwise if you only see the headlines, merely on closer inspection they describe a far more involved process using industrial equipment. Likewise, "vegan leather" is sometimes made from mushrooms and sometimes made at abode, just the old process is far more involved and the latter involves different materials.

Its second merits involved microwaving a rock, which is inadvisable due to the potential for metal deposits to ignite. But every bit 1 YouTube aqueduct demonstrates, doing and then volition yield yous one very hot and possibly cleaved rock — but you lot won't go any crystals out of the bargain. There are children'southward science projects around the concept of creating "crystals" with boiled salt water. However, that procedure is not instantaneous.

The prune likewise claimed that using a kitchen blowtorch for foods such as crème brûlée could fairly torch sand to make a thick slab of colorful glass. Once again, the assertion was based on a grain of truth, only using equipment intended to caramelize sugar while leaving a frail custard intact ain't it, main:

Sand, when hot enough to make glass, must be heated in backlog of 3,200 degrees Fahrenheit … Making glass takes virtually an entire day. Drinking glass makers add chemicals to baby silica sand from Ottawa, Ill. The mixture is cooked in a furnace called a bee hive. The blend is stirred during the final four hours until completed, nearly a 20-hr procedure.

Once again, at that place is some truth to the tinfoil into a decorative metal orb montage. Apparently, that project was some sort of online trend, leading to an April 2018 video in which the aqueduct's creator explains in a video description:

The latest crazy online tendency is polishing aluminum foil balls until they shine. I didn't even know you could exercise that to aluminum foil, then Challenge accepted! I am going to do the Japanese polished foil ball just to see what it takes. I accept tried to practise an AMAZING MIRROR Polish on on different objects earlier, merely I never knew that you lot tin can polish tinfoil. This ball became my obsession AND my masterpiece.

Although the "Blossom" video indicates that the process calls for virtually ten sheets of tinfoil, some oil, and sandpaper, this video shows a far more than arduous process. It involves a decent corporeality of tinfoil, several kinds of sandpaper, a hammer, extensive hammering, a chugalug sander, something that looks like paint or paint, and what appears to be hours of work for said brawl.

Following that, no credible source (or any source we could locate) suggested that the involved and lengthy cosmos of century eggs could be "hacked" with Coca-Cola or any other substance:

A Chinese delicacy, century eggs are duck eggs that have been preserved in a saline solution of ash, lime, salt, clay and rice for weeks or even months. When preservation is consummate, the trounce of the egg volition become speckled, giving information technology an aged appearance. The yolk will get dark light-green, flossy and cheese-like, and the whites will plough into a nighttime-colored jelly.

Past all accounts, century eggs take at to the lowest degree 45 days to make:

There are three major methods for making century eggs, according to the FDA, including coating, soaking, and a mix of the to a higher place. In the first method, the manufacturer applies quick lime, constitute ash, and other alkaline substances onto the shell. In the 2nd method, the manufacturer soaks the egg in solution containing sodium hydroxide. The other method is a mix the two. The fourth dimension required for soaking is usually 45 days in summer and 60 days in winter.

Soaking an egg in vinegar for at least 12 to 24 hours can create a "naked egg," which is a common science projection for children. Out of all the suggested "transformations," that was arguably the to the lowest degree useful.

All in all, the "mind-blowing transformations you tin can practice at home" tips were useless, dangerous, or both. At all-time they were a waste of time and materials, but at worst they could entice children into microwaving items with metal deposits. The video'due south demonstrations were fabricated or edited deceptively (peradventure as an early April Fool's Day prank), and the suggested projects would not piece of work every bit claimed, if at all.