Can a mobile phone cook an egg?
A popular Internet myth is that mobile phones can cook an egg. One of the claims is that an egg placed between 2 mobile phones in a continuous call would be cooked in 65 minutes - Can this be true?
Simply - No. Mobile phones are very low powered (0.25W maximum), and if you assumed all of the power was deposited in the egg, there would be very little temperature increase, certainly way below the amount required to cook an egg which is 70degrees Celcius or more.
Such articles are a hoax. The website of webzine "Gelf Magazine" shows the hoax was started by Charles Ivermee of UK in 2000. When asked why he put the article on the Internet, Ivermee replied that "It was 6 years ago but I seem to recall that there was a lot of concern about people’s brains getting fried and being from a radio/electronics background I found it all rather silly…So I thought I’d add to the silliness."
In October 2007 the Australian Centre for RF Bioeffects Research (ACRBR) conducted an experiment to de-bunk the myth that cell phone exposure can cook an egg.
For further information debunking this hoax you may also refer to
Click to watch the video
Can a mobile phone cook popcorn?
Some video clips were circulated in May 2008 on the Internet claiming that it is possible to cook popcorn using the electromagnetic energy from three or four transmitting mobile phones. Such video clips are a hoax.
The claim that RF energy from several mobile phones can cook popcorn cannot be true as they do not generate anywhere near enough RF energy to pop the corn. We can demonstrate this as follows:
- if you assume that each mobile phone is emitting RF energy at its maximum average power of 0.25 W (based on a peak power of 2 W per phone) for 1 minute; and even if the total power of each phone (4 * 0.25 W = 1 W) was completely absorbed by the popcorn then the temperature rise will be minimal and still far below the 190 °C temperature actually needed for cooking popcorn
- In reality, a microwave oven of about 1000 Watts takes anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute to cook popcorn. As indicated above, even with three or four phones, the total power is at least a 1000 times below what would be required
- Also it is worth noting that in the various clips, several of the phones appear to only be ringing. When a mobile phone receives a call it only transmits intermittently until a call is answered.
Therefore for all of the above reasons, these phones are not the source of the energy that is cooking the popcorn.
A company called Cardo Systems has admitted that they were responsible for making the video clips and that the "videos are factitious and humorous optical illusions designed for entertainment.
Can a mobile phone cause an explosion at a petrol station?
Mobile phones do not cause petrol stations to explode. There is no evidence that a mobile phone has ever caused an explosion at a petrol station anywhere in the world according to the UK Institute of Petroleum.
The amount of radio frequency energy emitted from mobile phones is too low to cause a spark that could ignite petrol.
In 1991 Shell UK assessed the risks of a radio frequency spark from mobile phones and had found that mobile phones did not represent a meaningful hazard. By far the greatest hazard, apart from smoking and striking matches, was the car.
Can a mobile phone attract lightning in a storm?
Contrary to some media reports, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) advises that “Cell phones, small metal items, jewelery, etc., do not attract lightning..... Lightning tends to strike taller objects."
"People are struck because they are in the wrong place at the wrong time. The wrong place is anywhere outside. The wrong time is anytime a thunderstorm is nearby."
Common sense should always apply during thunderstorms. Guidelines for decreasing the risk of lightning strike are available from organisations such as NOAA and National Governments.
Are Mobile Phone Signals linked to decline in Bee numbers?
Mobile phone signals have been cleared from an association with reduction in bee numbers.
The United States Department of Agriculture says that there is no link between mobile phones and Colony Collapse Disorder(CCD). They also quote Stefan Kimmel, the researcher who conducted the German study as saying that there is "no link between our tiny little study and the CCD-phenomenon ... anything else said or written is a lie." Many of the media reports included a statement attributed to Albert Einstein but it is uncertain whether he made the statement. In addition, a 1981 study of bees exposed to 2450MHz signals at much higher powers found no effect on bee behaviour.
