Science Addendum

I ran my experiment with a slight modification – I placed an unbent and a bent staple under a glass bowl in my microwave. The glass bowl is mostly transparent to the microwaves at the wavelength used in the ovens, but it would insulate the charges and prevent damage to my microwave.

I placed the staples in for 3.5 minutes, about the maximum length of time it would take for popcorn to fully cook.

RESULTS:
Inconclusive. I heard a faint pop every 15-30 seconds, something that didn’t happen with just the bent staple used in the popcorn run, but I couldn’t see any discharge. It could have just been running between the ends of the staple, or grounding itself out some other way. The glass did get much hotter than when I ran it by itself in a second run, but I didn’t measure the temperature specifically.

To ensure the glass cover wasn’t having an effect, I run the unbent paperclip by itself without a cover. The same pop occurred, but in both cases it was so faint I don’t want to assign it to any specific cause.

CONCLUSIONS:
I could be right with my initial hypothesis. But I don’t know. A high-speed camera focused on the staple would tell me for sure, but I don’t have the resources.

I could be wrong, and the staples don’t posses enough metal to build sufficient charge. Using larger, staple-gun staples of varying sizes would tell me, but I don’t want to put my own oven at risk testing that.

So. Again. Anybody have a microwave they are willing to risk for science?