Cooking an egg with cell phones.

[friedinbulk]

This sounds like horse hooey, but I have specific instructions for cooking an egg using two cell phones.  I wonder if it actually works!

1) Put an egg in an egg cup.
2) Turn on a radio or HiFi system to a comfortable volume.
3) Put cell phone A's antenna about a half inch from the egg and switch it on.
4) Repeat for phone B. but on the other side of the egg.
5) Using phone B, call phone A.
6) Answer phone A.
7) Assuming a 2 watt transmitter in your phones, your egg should be boiled in about 3 minutes.

The purpose of the radio/HiFi system in step 2 is never really explored.
This article was featured on slashdot.org today based on this original source: http://www.wymsey.co.uk/wymchron/cooking.htm
From what my research has dug up, the source is extremely old, dating back to 2000 or 2001, so this may not work with modern phones.

[ModernRonin]

Wouldn't work with a 2 watt phone, either. To give you some idea, most microwave ovens (which do use some of the same frequencies as a cell phone) operate at 1000 watts or more - just look at the numbers written right on the front of the thing, or on the box:

http://www.microwavecookingforone.com/Charts/Wattage.html

The difference in power here is about three orders of magnitude, about a thousand times. That's about like the difference between being hit with a hard-swung feather (2g) vs being hit with a hard-swung hammer (2000g).

There's also the little fact that cell phones broadcast radio waves to the cell phone tower, not directly to the other phone... oh, whoops!


This one's pure bunk. I've done this experiment with my mom's neighbors who have a 3 Watt "bag phone" so they can use cell phones at their house up in the mountains. After 45 minutes of use with an egg leaning against the part of the case where the antenna is, the egg did not even change temperature as far as the 1/10th of a degree F oral thermometer I was using could tell. I'm not saying that cell phones are entirely harmless; they may yet find that all of us holding up small radio transmitters to our heads is not so good for our brains. But even powerful cell phones are not anywhere near good enough to fry an egg. Or even heat it, as far as my experiments could tell.

[ModernRonin]

Yeah, that could easily be.

Here's some more math from a posting about this story on Slashdot.org:

Let's see ... an egg is, oh, say 50 grams. So it takes 50 calories to raise the temp of the egg by 1C. And a hard-boiled egg is more or less at equilibrium with boiling water, so the minimum would be something like 70 * 50 calories, and 4.2 joules/calorie, so its going to take MINIMUM 14,700 joules.

60 joules to the watt-minute. 720 joules in 12 watt-minutes. 720 joules < 14,700 joules.

Check: it takes about 1 minute for my 700 watt microwave to cook 1 egg. 700 watt-minutes is 42,000 joules. 720 joules < 42,000 joules.

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=176419&cid=14655847

[mishabear]

friedinbulk , you are correct to expect this to be total huey! aside from making for boring TV, it has several funamental problems

Talking is not even the highest power setting a cell phone uses! Adam and Jamie used an RF power meter to discover that starting a call, outgoing or incoming didn't matter. While the phone is first connecting to the nearest tower, it uses max power. After that, it throttles down to the lowest power setting that will work.

Further, as a gullibility test, try microwaving an egg. Measure ho long it takes to explode. Now, multiply the time in minutes by the power of the microwave, most modern ones are at least 1000 watts. This would be the watt-minutes needed to cook an egg. The cell phones will normally run at 100 milliwatts (0.1 watts) each in talk mode, once the connection has been established. So multiply the number you got before by 5 for the total amount of RF energy being emitted by the two cell phones, and then by 10 again because the RF energy is radiated in all directions at once, and not contained in a metal lined box! By the way, the strongest RF signal comes not out of the TIP of the antenna, but PARALLEL to it! They are further pulling you leg by having what SEEMS obvious but is actually wrong in aiming the cell phones! If it took 1 minute for the egg to explode in a real microwave, that means it will take 1x1000x5x10 or 50,000 minutes to cook the egg! Even if your two cell phones had batteries big enough to handle 50,000 minutes of talk time in one charge!!!!, the egg would be heated SO SLOWLY that all the heat would leak out faster than it went in!

As a second gullibility test, when was the last time you heard of someone's HEAD being cooked by a cell phone in only SIX minutes of talk time! If it works for a single egg with two cell phones in THREE minutes, it should cause some noticeable pain or damage on a head with only one cell phone in 6 minutes!

Mike

[FrothyChimp]

max power output for a digital cell phone is 0.6 watts. Also remember that the RF field on a 1/2 wave 2db antenna is 360 degrees so that reduces the field strength actually crossing the path of the egg. You would need something on the order of a 20-23 db antenna to give you a good focused beam, the higher the gain the better. Oh and dont forget to watch the wave phase on both phones, last thing you need in cooking a 50000 minute egg is standing waves.

[friedinbulk]

I crunched the specific numbers regarding this.  For starters, cell phones operate at the wrong frequency.  Generally 800MHz, 900MHz, 1.9GHz, not in the 2.6GHz range that resonates with water.

2Watts is a huuuuge amount of power for cell phones, even old analog ones.  Typically, 100mW is the maximum allowed these days.  Assuming a 50g egg, over three minutes, assuming 2 watts will only provide 720 joules.  Compare this with my 700 watt microwave: 42,000 joules.

It might be easier to just take a cell battery and short it and cook your eggs this way.

[kmacabre28]

All great ideas. Just one problem, i've seen this test done on an episode of a british show called Brainiac. They used 100 mobile (cell) phones Piled around the egg like a nest, then used 100 more phones to call the 100 on the egg, let it ring for 3 min.

The Egg remaned Raw.

This Show is regularly broadcast on G4TV.

[sas]

But it does not actually contribute to the discussion, now, does it?

If the myth is that two cell phones will cause an egg to cook, than a test conducted (and failing) with 100 cell phones to one egg certainly seems to give empirical proof that the whole concept is bunk. That being said, as I am unfamiliar with the program, I cannot speak as to whether they exhibit the same scientific approach as do the MythBusters.

As a second gullibility test, when was the last time you heard of someone's HEAD being cooked by a cell phone in only SIX minutes of talk time! If it works for a single egg with two cell phones in THREE minutes, it should cause some noticeable pain or damage on a head with only one cell phone in 6 minutes!

Well Misha, I haven't actually heard of anyone's head being cooked, but I swear there are some folks who use cell phones extensively whom I might think had their brains fried... but that's another myth.

We need Dr. Heather back. Our resident radio experts have put forward enough data to clearly negate even the remotest possibility. How the heck did a myth like this get perpetuated? 

- sas

[kmacabre28]

Ok, I’ve done a little research on this one, And oh boy do people ever believe this one. I did a search on Google “Cooking egg with Cell phone”. Most of the ones that are in belief are the same as listed under pro, but the surprising part is there  were far less in the Con.

Pro:

http://www.wymsey.co.uk/wymchron/cooking.htm



Con:

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/comments/3965/

http://techdirt.com/articles/20060207/1817205_F.shtml

If this myth is as believed as it seems on the rest of the web, if for no other reason than that, I think Adam and Jamie should tackle this one. As for testing, start out as the diagram shows. But I have no ideas on how to replicate the end results of the myth.
i.e. A cooked egg

[mishabear]

But I have no ideas on how to replicate the end results of the myth.
i.e. A cooked egg

Simple. Hook up each cell phone to a trucker's CB linear amplifier, preferably in the 1000 Watt range, then repeat the experiment!

 

Mike

[RogueSpidor]

Something that's been bothering me...

2) Turn on a radio or HiFi system to a comfortable volume.

Why?

Unless it's for entertainment for 6 minutes. Personally, I think I'd just go do something and come back 6 minutes later; I don't listen to the radio when I boil an egg on a stove; why would I do it with the phones?

If it's supposed to somehow boost the signal, then it's even more B.S. since your radio or HiFi system is a receiver only.

Why is this step even listed, since it has nothing to do with cell phones?

[mishabear]

Rogue, they mention that because the cell phones, particularly the new digital ones, will save battery power by not transmitting when there is no sound to send. The radio or HiFi is only intended to force the cell to transmit full time. You could also have a woman talking to the the same effect! 

Mike

[RogueSpidor]

If a man says something, and no woman hears it, is he still wrong?

[BlackWidowNor]

could the radio be there so that there's something going into the receiver of each phone - something to transmit to the other phone?

* BlackWidowNor shrugs

Nor

[RogueSpidor]

That's basically what Mike said. He's a rocket scientist, though, so he said it with more words.

It's how I would have said it too, but I'm not a rocket scientist. I'm just a geek.