User:Steven J. Koch/Notebook/Kochlab/2009/07/03/Popcorn in Liquid Nitrogen

Steve Koch 22:55, 3 July 2009 (EDT): After spending most of the night dreaming about whether popcorn could be microwave popped while in liquid nitrogen, Andy and I decided to give it a try. 7 minutes of 1100 Watts microwaving did not produce any popping while submerged. We did learn a little bit, though, about how to microwave pop popcorn (in the absence of LN2):
 * Having many kernels inside a sort of sealed bag is the fastest way to pop the kernels.
 * Isolated kernels by themselves do not pop well.
 * Popcorn can still pop, even after LN2 freeze/thaw cycle.
 * Microwave popcorn is packed in a lot of grease.
 * Probably the most interesting thing to see was that a container of Liquid nitrogen accumulated frost while in the microwave. This was in the weak microwave (maybe 500-800 or so Watts, just guessing).  But it showed really how poorly ice heats up compared with liquid water in a microwave.  This was pretty cool.

Things to try

 * Mike Pikaart questioned whether kernels had already frozen, since frozen water absorbs far less microwave energy. Quickly submerging and starting microwave is a much better idea.
 * Also, even better would be preheating for a minute or however long it can go without popping. I think that would give quite a head start on the LN2.