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Claim from Facebook:

enter image description here

Did you know?

A smartphone microwaves for just one minute will fully charge the battery.

Lifehacker insists it's fake, and I know it is, but I figured it'd be a useful one to have someone explain the scientific basis or describe what will actually happen, and why.

loofda
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Mark Mayo
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    The videos of this are far more convincing than mere words could ever be. This one in particular [is more awesome than I could have imagined](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5Zs0a0TOy4). Most of the [other videos on YouTube of mobile phones in microwaves](http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mobile+phone+in+microwave) are far more boring but just as destructive. – Ladadadada Jun 11 '13 at 08:03
  • on electronics.SE or physics.SE you'll be able to get the technical answers – ratchet freak Jun 11 '13 at 09:17
  • Wow. 89.4% of the ”facts” on that site are pure baloney. – Konrad Rudolph Jun 11 '13 at 10:28
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    What phone was Apple selling in 2005? – Jeff Jun 11 '13 at 12:19
  • @Jeff - iWannaBeAniPhone – user5341 Jun 11 '13 at 13:11
  • I do not think this is a notable claim. – denten Jun 12 '13 at 05:24
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    @KonradRudolph that might be a good question in itself, whether 90% of "facts" on facebook are pure baloney. Of course the answer would likely turn out that it's closer to 99% :) – jwenting Jun 12 '13 at 05:40
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    Fact: 73% of all statistics are made up. Anyhow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCx5_K_21_k – Lennart Regebro Jun 12 '13 at 07:55

2 Answers2

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There is plenty of people trying ad hoc experiments about what happens to phones put in a microwave:

Without peer-review and a proper literature search, there is a limit to how much we can trust these anecdotes. Further, these phones are old - not modern cell-phones.

However, in each video, the phone is completely destroyed - the the microwave is sometimes damaged. It should be sufficient evidence to convince people that this claim is a hoax.

Oddthinking
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    unacceptable answer, without peer reviewed scientific study it's just anecdotal... – jwenting Jun 12 '13 at 05:41
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    I certainly agree it isn't a peer-reviewed scientific study, and explicitly warn about that and limited its reliability. If you have a peer-reviewed scientific study, it should be voted up over this. However, I do not believe a peer-reviewed scientific study is likely to exist on this matter. They are not anecdotes is the sense that 'they (allegedly) happened to me, and I offer no evidence that they actually happened'. They are anecdotes in the sense they are the results of ad hoc experiments, not a scientific analysis. I explicitly admit that too. – Oddthinking Jun 12 '13 at 08:14
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    We could suggest the gullible all try this and video the result. That should give us some thousands of data points :-) – Rory Alsop Jun 12 '13 at 11:46
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    To be fair, the claim is only about microwaving batteries, not the entire phone. Although the graphic seems to be borrowed from an iPhone/iPod, and the claim specifically mentions Apple devices, which typically have non-removable batteries. At minimum, it's a confused claim. – Flimzy Jun 12 '13 at 14:28
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    @Flimzy: I considered that and concluded "A smart phone microwaved for just one minute" referred to the whole unit, not merely the battery. – Oddthinking Jun 12 '13 at 15:01
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    @Oddthinking: I don't think the answer would change much if one was only microwaving the battery anyway. Microwaving metals is not a very "safe" thing to do, and most batteries (at least the kinds used in cell phones) contain at least metal leads. – Flimzy Jun 13 '13 at 00:06
  • Yeah, right. 1 video is fake, 1 is without a battery (how is it related?). Instead of explaining how microwaves induce current in circuits and burn them. – Andrey Jun 17 '13 at 21:54
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    Andrey, a fake video? That's terrible... but you seem to have accidentally omitted the part of your comment where you explain which one is fake, and what evidence you have for that. The one without a battery (which I highlighted) still demonstrates that the phone will be destroyed, even if it doesn't demonstrate the battery won't be charged. We had a theoretical answer to this question; it proved to be bogus. Empirical answers beat theoretical speculation. – Oddthinking Jun 18 '13 at 00:48
  • @Oddthinking strictly speaking bunch of videos just show that *those* phones were destroyed. May be other phones will get charged. It is of course false, I am just trying to point out that this proof is not general. Regarding the fake one: http://www.stopmotionworks.com/news/index.php/483/cgi-stop-motion-puppetry-cell-phone-in-microwave-viral-ad-2008 if you watch it slowly you see two things: copy-pasted elements of the image and human skull. – Andrey Jun 18 '13 at 11:36
  • @Andrey: Re: fake. Oh dear, you are absolutely right! I stopped watching after about 40 seconds, before the fakery. Removed. Sorry. – Oddthinking Jun 18 '13 at 11:59
  • @Andrey: Re: anecdotal nature: Yes, you are right. It is a limitation to this answer, and I copped to that in the answer itself. However, in the absence of a peer-reviewed trial, I think this is the best evidence we are going to get. – Oddthinking Jun 18 '13 at 12:02
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Snopes.com debunks this claim; the analysis even includes the graphic in the question above.

John Broughton
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  • Answers on this site should show a little bit of effort. Please try to give a full answer. Snopes talks about it, and? Do they provide references? Did you check them? – Sklivvz Jun 25 '13 at 08:52