HOWTO propagate an urban legend

February 4, 2006 | General | By: Mark VandeWettering

Boing Boing presented a link to this: HOWTO cook an egg with two mobile phones

The only problem?  It doesn’t work.  It can’t work.   Dan and his readers figured it out relatively simply: if you take the battery’s capacity, express that in calories, and then take the mass of the egg and figure out how much energy it takes to raise the egg 40 degrees Centigrade, then you realize that even with 100% conversion, it just ain’t gonna happen.

Shame on you Boing Boing.

Comments

Pingback from Artformation
Time 6/21/2006 at 2:26 pm

ve not seen the Russian Scientist variation, there’s been other variations posted around the ‘Net. Here’s a few sites that discuss the story: http://www.flutterby.com/archives/comments/8198.htmlhttps://brainwagon.org/archives/2006/02/04/1888/ http://major-clanger.livejournal.com/136900.html And another story by the people who did, I believe, the original version: hunting the wily tofu!

Pingback from E’ una bolgia
Time 7/3/2006 at 9:57 pm

Una bufala, unastoriella, una vera sòla , in giro da anni e letta oggi da centinaia di migliaia di persone, che magarai ci crederanno in buona fede.

Pingback from Reporters
Time 7/3/2006 at 10:22 am

bianca dell’uovo era solida. Dopo 65 minuti l’uovo era ben cotto”. Quali ricercatori? Dove? Quando? Il secondo errore è che, se avesse fatto qualche verifica, avrebbe scoperto che si tratta di una storiella vecchia di anni e, soprattutto, non vera.Qualche link sulla leggenda metropolitana (scritta lo scorso febbraio anche da Boing Boing e Slashdot), in cui si parla anche del suo creatore. Precisazione che spero superflua: non sto dicendo che i cellulari fanno bene o fanno male, sto soltanto parlando

Comment from Kevin VandeWettering
Time 2/7/2006 at 5:00 pm

It takes about a minute and a half to nuke a scrambled egg (including cold milk). That’s 1300 watts directed very efficiently at the food. At 150 milliwatts that a phone uses, it would take years.

But one thing that people might want to think about is their microwave oven. That does have enough power to hurt you.

If you think about that, you really might not want to peer intently in the door while nuking a burrito.

Pingback from Slashdot | HOWTO, Cook an Egg With Your Cell Phone
Time 2/22/2006 at 8:13 am

[…] It’s a HOAX! (Score:5, Informative) by SiliconEntity (448450) on Monday February 06, @07:35PM (#14655905) This has been widely [flutterby.com] discussed [brainwagon.org] online [livejournal.com] and it is a pure hoax. The wymsey site also has such highly factual articles as hunting the wily tofu [wymsey.co.uk]. Obligatory dig at slashdot editors elided for space. [ Reply to This ] Re:It’s a HOAX! by iMaple (Score:1) Monday February 06, @09:14PM Holy bejesus by John Miles (Score:3) Monday February 06, @07:36PM Damn good idea… by Otto (Score:2) Monday February 06, @11:03PM Snopes! by redelm (Score:3) Monday February 06, @07:38PM Re:Snopes! by guardian-ct (Score:2) Tuesday February 07, @08:38PM 2 Way by chckerx (Score:1) Monday February 06, @07:40PM 100 phones wont even cook an egg. by surial (Score:2) Monday February 06, @07:40PM Shocking level of knowledge from slashdot readers by tttonyyy (Score:3) Monday February 06, @07:42PM Are you people really so… by Expert Determination (Score:1) Monday February 06, @07:44PM Next week’s lesson will be by Belseth (Score:2) Monday February 06, @07:46PM It’s a hoax, people! by Peet42 (Score:1) Monday February 06, @07:46PM mod STORY down, just because it’s not funny… by javaxman (Score:2) Monday February 06, @07:48PM Re:mod STORY down, just because it’s not funny… by MikeURL (Score:2) Monday February 06, @10:14PM How about my laptop instead? by daveburnham (Score:1) Monday February 06, @07:53PM […]

Pingback from Cell phones can cook an egg – Gold & Silver Forum
Time 10/10/2006 at 12:00 pm

[…] Re: Cell phones can cook an egg This has been widely [flutterby.com] discussed [brainwagon.org] online [livejournal.com] and it is a pure hoax. The wymsey site also has such highly factual articles as hunting the wily tofu [wymsey.co.uk]. __________________ Coin, (I am asking this here because this topic seems to have your interest) are you perchance a member formerly known as BOOK that was banned? It was implied here and there, but no one bothered to ask you. Quote: […]