If you put hot dogs and pickles against an AM radio tower, they act as speakers. Also, don’t do that
I’m not a scientist, but I would posit that the best kind of science is the kind where you set things on fire. That’s probably the reason I’m not allowed to be left alone with the PC Gamer kit cupboard, but it turns out that Jeff Geerling may agree with me.
The Geerling Engineering team have been sticking various food items up against an AM radio tower and recording the results, which seem to mostly be of the incendiary kind. However, a surprising side-effect seems to be that certain, watery items appear to begin to “talk”.
Geerling has posted a YouTube video showing the fruits (or should that be vegetables?) of the team’s most recent labours, along with a more detailed breakdown on the Jeff Geerling blog. Firstly, a hot dog was offered up to a 12 kW AM radio tower, attached to the end of a long wooden stick. Unsurprisingly, the hot dog began to sizzle, but astonishingly, also acted as a speaker and began audibly playing AM radio.
Let’s stop right here for a PSA: Do not, under any circumstances, touch your nearest AM radio tower. At best, you’re likely to end up with RF burns, as evidenced by the fact that the food items used here have a tendency to cook incredibly quickly. At worst? Touching one could be fatal. You have been warned.
Anyway, not satisfied with merely making a hot dog talk, Geerling and his father experimented with various other foods, including a bratwurst, a corn dog and a pickle. The pickle was particularly interesting, as while it also acted as a speaker and began to burn, it became increasingly quiet. This was attributed to the pickle activating the tower’s short circuit protection and reducing the power output, meaning that hot dogs make better AM speakers than pickles. The more you know!
The effect here is said to be through the plasma-air interaction, and the hot dog’s watery mass demodulating the AM signal into an audible sound. In the case of the hot dog, the entire weiner was heated to around 80°C, making it technically edible. Although, as Geerling points out, the extremely charred remains on the end of the dog didn’t look particularly appetising.
As for the pickle? Well, a taste-testing was carried out, followed by an immediate spitting out, as the gherkin was said to taste strongly of copper. This may be because of the electrolysis effect of the copper used to ground it, meaning that it’s unlikely to catch on as a pickle-heating method for human consumption. Burger chains, hold fire. No new flavour-enhancing techniques have been discovered here.
Also, the bratwurst test just happened to be conducted when the radio host was speaking German. I call shenanigans on that one, but hey, it makes good YouTube content.
Plans for further experiments include the potential inclusion of a fiberglass rod for better insulation, and a high-speed camera to capture the plasma interaction between the tower and the food items to see if the modulation can be captured on film. I don’t know about you, but the last thing I expected to see today was a talking hot dog. Still, here we are.
