Microwaved vs. filtered water
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Below is a sience fair project that my granddaughter did for 2006. In it she took filered water and divided it into two parts. The first part she heated to boiling in a pan on the stove, and the second part she heated to boiling in a microwave. Then after cooling she used the water to water two identical plants to see if there would be any difference in the growth between the normal boiled water and the water boiled in a microwave. She was thinking that the structure or energy of the water may be compromised by microwave. As it turned out, even she was amazed at the difference.
So what happens if humans drink nothing but microwaved water?
A ha! Proof that microwaves suck. Not only does it make the food soggy and awful, but it also kills me!
Also, it would have been nice to see a control: plain old tap water.
I always heat my coffee in the microwave oven. I wonder what strange things it does to the beverage.
oh man, that is an interesting article. It is right up my alley with microwave related science, as i conduct much of it: http://microwave.deadlycomputer.com
however, i dont eat the things i put in a microwave
and, i do think that tap water should have been used for a control.
Natural spring water should have been used for the control.
uhm yah and you sure 100% that the slow plant was in fact identical to the other.
You should have used more than one plant in each test group, and have a third “control” group being fed nothing but straight tap water.
1. More than one plant in each test group: There are many reasons besides just water that can cause ONE plant to not do well and the other to thrive. You need the test groups to have more “participants” to try and control for individual variance.
2. Control group.: You need a group of plants under “normal” conditions to demonstrate that it is not some other environmental factor affecting your results.
3. Uniform conditions: Ideally, your two test groups and the control group should be exposed to identical conditions. One way to achieve this is to have all of the individuals “intermingled” randomly, and determine which “treatment” they receive by putting different colored tags in each pot or something.
4. Study should be blinded. You shouldn’t “know” which individuals are getting which treatment, otherwise, you may (unwittingly or otherwise) introduce bias in the experiment. One “researcher” should be preparing the water and putting it in color coded bottles. The other “researcher” should be administering the water by color code, without knowing which color responded to which treatment group until it is time to analyze the data.
Unheated filtered water from the same source water should have been the control. Also more then one plant for each type for water should have been used. The microwave plant could just be a dud of a plant.
great experiment for a kid!! (although I agree with the above posts, specifically from Gnascher)
Two test subjects and no control group does not a scientific experiment make. Also, the pre-experiment research seems to be lacking. Thanks for working to dumb down America.
What if distilled water was used? It would seem that the microwaved water might be more like distilled water and therefore any microorganisms in the filtered water would have been killed by microwaving the water. My **guess** is that if distilled water were used instead of filtered, then the results might be close to identical.
Just a thought
I’m not sure about the scientific value of this experimant, although it is interesting and should be done in a more controlled environment.
It’s obvious really, surely anyone who has warmed up coffee or tea in a microwave knows that the flavour is ruined.
Microwaves are great for a quick snack though.
Thats it. Just one test ? And a conclusion is drawn ?
This is not the way to teach kids science. This will mislead them.
A valid conclusion should be – repeatable, reproducible, input conditions/factors listed/evaluated, controlled conditions and further testing should be done.
Anyways, good to know that the kid is at least interested in science.
I think everyone here is forgetting that the experiment was run by a young (very young) student. Give the kid credit for coming up with an idea to get the rest of the mature world on the edges of their seats screaming “where’s the control” and “dumbing down America”.
At first, I was thinking the same things about how a larger number of plants are required to generate reliable results…but then I realized that it is your granddaughter’s science fair project, and judging from thsi project, i’d say she’s about in the 5th grade so give her a break….this is a great idea for an experiment though, perhaps a larger, more professional study should be done, but I think this is a great concept for a science project like this.
Well, your grand daughter should be proud that a slew of the biggest nerds in American can only nitpick the size of the experiment. The fact that this article has gotten so much attention speaks wonders for its brilliance.
Sounds like fun, keep encouraging your granddaughter and show her to the way of Gnascher up above.
I’m pretty sure its not *their* (ues) granddaughter, although that would be an impressive feat.
HAHA! I knew it… They said I was crazy when I told them the microwave couldn’t kill the soviet mind control toxins in the water supply. They said that the microwave would do fine. Remember always boil with a copper kettle to remove the evil flouridation!
This isn’t the first time this experiment has been done. Try it yourself — it’s easy enough for a kid to do. :) If it’s true, the implications are fairly profound.
er, excooose me plizz but WHO microwaves…water ?!?!?!?
Ever heard of RO units ?
What I should’ve said first but didn’t is “good job”. You can consider this a pilot study to determine if further study is warrranted.
Now that you’ve seen that there *seems* to be an effect here, apply good scientific method (as described above) to try and gain significant results.
It shouldn’t be too hard to set up the experiment “right”, and with summer coming soon, it would be a great thing for a parent/child to do together.
The people are not supposed to be aware of the evil powers behind microwaves, now the secrets out, and all thanks to a little girl!!!
I demand all further experimenting to stop and come to an abrupt hault otherwise be labeled as a TERRORIST and be tracked down and terminated!
Maybe she used a crappy non-microwaveable container….. so the container prob leaked some crap into the water.
How hot and how long was the water heated?
I give the kid credit for trying. No one gets it right the first time. For those who are worried about your health:
The microwave heats water by using EM radiation to excite the water molecules. (Before you get scared of the word “radiation”, remember that visible light is EM radiation too.) They spin, they bounce, etc. The movement causes heat.
A stove heats water by conduction. Applying heat directly.
The different heating methods do not leave different “impressions” on the water. Something else probably killed the plant. There are hundreds of possibilities. We are discussing this on a different forum:
http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=55420
One possibility that I am surprised nobody brought up is that the granddaughter is lying, or that she cheated to get a predetermined result. I know that little girls generally are made of sugar, spice, everything nice, etc., but we do live in an age of academic dishonesty. Also, the purpose of the experiment was to show that we have been lied to all these years about the harmful effects of microwave water. I bet she, or someone close to her (perhaps someone made of snakes, snails, puppy dog tails, etc.) abused/killed the plant on purpose.
I had a neighbour that had a microwave oven, and he died.
Microwave ovens have only been used by the masses for the past 30 years. With time the percentage of water molecules on earth that have been microwaved will continue to increase. All hope is lost.
This is so obviously a Hoax. The microwaved plant has its leaves sniped off on the progresive days. If you look carefully you
will see the remaining stumps of where the leaves have been snipped off. When plants whither and die the leaves wilt and flop
onto the ground they do not disapear.
Sky.
Falling.
Microwaved to mutate
Research shows that cooking or heating food in microwave ovens can cause it severe molecular damage which, when eaten, leads to abnormal changes in human blood. These changes can cause deterioration of the immune system.
In this small but well-controlled trial eight people were given either normally cooked or microwaved food over a few days. Blood samples were taken before and at several intervals after meals. Whereas the blood samples of those eating normally cooked food showed little change, the blood of those who had eaten microwaved food showed a drop in lymphocytes, the white blood cells critical to immune system activity.
(491) Tom Valentine. Nexus 1.4.95 p25-29
Source: http://www.ehn.clara.net/
I think that the microwaved water could have had something in the soil that made it die anyways.
the pope rules dude
pie is sexy
its not that the microwave plant died, it didnt grow it seems, it lacked the nutrients it needed for healty life. Possibly distilled water would have been similar. Great job little one. Hope you got an A+
I am planning to do a similer experiment and was wondering if there is anything NOT mentioned that I should take into consideration. It is know cold outside and i will need to keep my plants indoors. will three plants in each water type be enough ?