collision detection: How to cook an egg with two mobile phones

February 02, 2006

How to cook an egg with two mobile phones

A couple of students in the UK have just developed an innovative new kitchen technique: They've used two mobile phones to cook an egg. The instructions are online here, and the concept is basically that you prop up the phones so their antennae are about a half an inch from either side of the egg. Initiate a call from one phone to the other, leave 'em running for a few minutes, and pretty soon lunch is ready. As the instructions on their site note:

Cooking time: This very much depends on the power output of your mobile phone. For instance, a pair of mobiles each with 2 Watts of transmitter output will take three minutes to boil a large free range egg. Check your user manual and remember that cooking time will be proportional to the inverse square of the output power for a given distance from egg to phone.

Of course, it makes sense that this idea would come from the UK -- a country that is simply addled with fear that mobile phones cause brain cancer. While that worry has never really taken off in the US, it's a staple of British newspaper health coverage. The reality is that the health effects of non-ionizing radiation -- the stuff emitted by mobile phones -- has been not been closely studied in any longitudinal way, so while we're probably okay, who knows? Maybe we'll all grow third eyes. One thing is sure: Power usage alone causes mobile phones to heat up a lot during a prolonged phone call -- which is why I suspect this egg trick might actually work.

If you wanted to worry about mobile phones at all, that'd be the concern: Not that radiation will harm your brain, but that the heat will scramble your noggin like a mess of lovely eggs.

(Thanks to William Braine for this one!)

Posted by Clive Thompson at February 02, 2006 02:44 PM

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Comments

William Braine? really?

Posted by: mike d at February 2, 2006 4:01 PM

Discussed, debunked, uncooked. The only thing I can smell cooking is satire.

http://www.engadget.com/2005/09/07/boil-an-egg-instead-of-your-brain-with-your-cellphones/

Posted by: Matthew Siegler at February 2, 2006 4:08 PM

Heh. I agree, it has a strong whiff of satire about it -- particularly since it comes from the mobile-phones-will-kill-us UK.

But I swear I'm half tempted to try this. Like I said, the non-ionizing radiation isn't strong enough to do any damage at all. But the sheer heat from the power usage of phone -- hell, I wouldn't be shocked if you could cook an egg, a material whose proteins are notoriously reactive to low amounts of heat, with a couple of left-on-for-too-long mobile phones.

That said, there's still a satirical element in this, even if it actually did work.

Posted by: Clive at February 2, 2006 4:22 PM

I would try it, except that mobile costs are so high here in the UK - it would be the most expensive egg of my life.

The one thing that raised my suspicion is the two phones setup. Looks like a classic example of bad science. Why? I leave it to you...

Posted by: yish at February 2, 2006 7:43 PM

That's how I spells it, chum. I actually sent this to Clive to watch him debunk it, but he went and tossed it up there whole.

Posted by: braine at February 5, 2006 9:22 PM

I am just totally Bill's bitch here, I'm afraid.

Posted by: Clive at February 5, 2006 10:20 PM

"A couple of students in the UK have just developed an innovative new kitchen technique:"

Not strictly true :) I'm a single entity and no way am I student! I wrote the skit a good few years ago. How anyone can take it seriously really troubles me - you have no idea how much sleep I have lost over this one :)

But if I had a £ for every hit on that page - as sure as monkies aren't fish I would not being sitting here typing this!

Posted by: Wymsey at February 6, 2006 4:13 PM

Wymsey, you owe me 2 dollars... Now I have 2 eggs I have cracked open and for what? Some sick joke. You should be ashamed of yourself, did you not think of all of the starving Africans? There were probably hundreds, if not thousands of eggs wasted tonight. Oh I see, you are a chicken farmer in Alabama. It makes sence now.

Posted by: danagin at February 9, 2006 11:25 PM

I just wrote a new post in which Gelf magazine interviews you, Wymsey! Man, did I fall for this one, eh?

Posted by: Clive at February 21, 2006 2:34 PM