Mobile phones, what they do to popcorn

[Exfso]

If they do this to popcorn, what do they do to your brain:eyepop:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5odhh_pop-corn-telephone-portable-micro-o_news

[koputai]

An old urban legend. It was faked.

Cheers,
Jason.

[erick]

Good fun, but, sadly, not what it appears:-

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/youtube-mobile-phone-popcorn-video-exposed-as-a-fake/story-e6freuy9-1111116724095

http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2008/07/09/carroll.cellphone.popcorn.cnn

http://www.snopes.com/science/cookegg.asp

[bojan]

Yep.. fake.

I worked for NEC Australia (mobile phone division) when those two clowns made that video..
I had the necessary equipment to try to repeat the experiment, and of course I failed.
Very simple math will show how impossible this is:
The phones used in this video were Nokia GSM phones.
Maximum radiated output peak power from class 5 GSM phone is 29dBm (+-2dB) (750mW +-2dB).
The TX duty cycle is 12.5% - which means the phones are radiating 125mW each.. 250mW total, in all directions (not only into an egg).
If we assume the egg absorbs only 10% (I think this is very optimistic guess), that is 25mW.
No way to cook an egg with this kind of power, even after couple of hours.. with ideal thermal insulation.. ... and the battery would last 35 minutes maximum (at full TX power).
So.... no worries.. no one will get their brains damaged by using the mobile phones as such ;)
IMHO, even the alleged link between brain tumours and mobile phone usage is VERY questionable... increase of 1-2 in thousands of cases of brain tumours caused by other factors? Not very strong link, really.

[Exfso]

Thanks chaps, thought it was a tad radical. :D

[ballaratdragons]

Yep, popcorn trick is fake.
But don't carry a mobile phone in your pants pocket.
They roast nuts :lol:

No, not really. Just me being stupid again :P

[Barrykgerdes]

Yes it would need to be a fake. However if sufficient RF energy was focused at the corn I am sure they could be made to pop (like puting them in a microwav oven)

The effect on the brain however is a real threat but to generate enough heat to cause damage you would need the phone next to your ear for many hours a day (just like a lot of users do). However I think the users are more likely to get ear damage in the form of "cauliflower ears". Especially if they cop a couple of backhanders from someone they annoy!

Barry

[Astroman]

Guess that is why they (cinema owners) don't like people taking mobile phones into cinemas, afraid of people cooking their own popcorn. :D

[Kal]

All a clever marketing gimmick for bluetooth headsets

http://www.wired.com/underwire/2008/06/bluetooth-compa/