The background: About ten days ago, a Facebook friend of mine posted an item about a secondary school student who performed an experiment for a science fair. She took two identical plants. She watered one with water she heated to boiling in a pan on the stove, then let cool. She watered the other with water heated in the microwave, and then let cool. After nine days, the plant getting the microwaved water was dead. The other plant was thriving.
I'm trying to replicate her experiment. My two plants have been watered twice in the past week -- the one in the gray pot receiving the microwaved water. But so far, seven days later, they don't look any different. Do they?
You might notice I switched the location of the two plants. I will switch them back and forth at every watering, just to make sure that the placement doesn't make a difference. I'll update again in another week. But meantime . . . I feel safe drinking my reheated coffee.
13 comments:
Waiting breahlessly for your final installment. Dianne
What will they come up with next?
Cop Car
Microwaves are only dangerous if you stick your head in the oven. More fodder for urban myths or a million dollar government study.
On the girl's experiment: It's silly. And, if the results she got are accurate, she did not treat both plants equally. As your experiment has shown. An experiment is valid only if the results can be repeated.
On another note of no real importance, I shot 75 today and on Wednesday. It's all going to fall apart soon, I can feel it.
Whew! One less thing to worry about!
If you understand the mechanics of microwaved water (and food), it doesn't seem like it should make a difference. I, however, don't like the taste of microwaved hot water as much as water heated on a stove. But that's just me. :-)
In school science was not one of my favorite subjects but I'm eagerly waiting to see the final results of your experiment.
Stephen, I wasn't much of a science student either. So I do not understand the mechanics of microwaved water; however, it still seemed to me like it shouldn't make THAT big a difference . . . which is why I decided to do the experiment for myself. But I agree with DJan -- microwaved water just doesn't work very well with tea or coffee. Why is that?
I know believers. When your plants survive, I won't tell them. I might also add, maybe the microwaved water is "deader" from being boiled. You could augment the experiment by watering plants with water from the hot water tap. I could explain this more clearly, but you get it, I'm sure.
How long did the girl "nuke" the water? How long did you?
I cannot notice any difference with tea using stove boiled water and "nuked" water myself but I put the tea bag in the cup when "nuking" the water.
I wish I had looked for this earlier:
http://www.snopes.com/science/microwave/plants.asp
Ah. Would have hated to toss the half-pot of coffee I intend to nuke tomorrow (a cup at a time).
I like the fact that you question everything and set up your own experiments! Your results thus far are very reassuring!
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