Do you know why eggs explode in the microwave?

Some time ago on the web took a ride a wave of viral videos in which users tried to boil eggs in their microwaves. And in the videos everything seemed to go smoothly at first. But when the cooks were already preparing to break the shell, the eggs exploded, showering those around with a splash of yolk and spewing out clouds of steam.

Researchers Anthony Nash and Lauren von Blon even prepared for the Acoustical Society of America studyhow loud such explosions are. It turned out that the indicators range from 86 to 133 decibels.

It's almost like the sound of a jet plane flying 30 meters away from you. And not much quieter than a shotgun blast right next to your ear.

But why are the eggs in microwave do they explode at all? Let's figure it out.

The white and yolk of eggs contain water, which, when exposed to microwaves, quickly heats up and turns into steam. The shell prevents it from coming out, which leads to accumulation

pressure inside her. Gradually it becomes so large that the shell can no longer withstand it, and the egg explodes. And if it doesn’t burst on its own in a microwave oven, it will certainly detonate when you break the integrity of the shell manually.

You may ask: why don’t eggs that are boiled on the stove explode? The fact is that heating in this case occurs more slowly than in a microwave. Yes, microwave ovens heat things up quickly, even too quickly. That's their advantage, right?

During the cooking process in a saucepan, the water contained in the egg does not have time to turn into steam before squirrels frozen. Therefore, increased internal pressure may cause the shell to crack, but it is not enough to cause an explosion.

But what if you need to boil an egg in the microwave? Well, try it first pierce. Then the pressure will be released, and an explosion will not occur.

By the way, potatoes also tend to explode in the microwave for exactly the same reasons. Therefore, before cooking root vegetables in this manner, you must first pierce Peel them with a fork in several places, and deeper.