Some time ago there was a discussion about electric discharges in a microwave oven, specifically what happens if you "nuke" a CD disk...

Well, I recently "blew" the writing of a couple of CD-R's, and decided to document the "nuking" - here is the result, in pictures:

This eerie display of lightning flashes appeared about 3 seconds after I pressed the "start" button, and lasted for a couple of seconds. I shot the picture through the shielded oven door glass - you can see the perforated metal net in the foreground.

Note that the CD is on top of a half-filled glass of water, this is a safety precaution! If you do this - not recommended, really - don't nuke for more than a few seconds, until the flashing stops, and be aware that it may be a bit smelly - so do it when the "missus" is out...

The disk looked like this after the operation - certainly not playable! Further "nuking" would not create any more flashing, since the alumin(i)um circle is now broken, and won't "short-circuit" the microwaves anymore...

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