Missing Eyebrows is essentially my third attempt at a blog. It seems like I could never strike the right tone. (In this one, I am easing into a tone, starting with what might be called a "flat affect".) However, when I went back and looked at the bathwater, there were some pretty babies floating in there. Perhaps they weren't such failures after all...
Anyway, here's my original article speculating on how to pop popcorn with lasers. Be sure to check out the video mentioned in the comments, where an alert reader gets the jump on me by popping a rotating popcorn kernel in tens of seconds using two 1-watt blue lasers.
So the updates: I managed to wreck the 200 mW red laser diode I was waiting for, so it joined the pile of 2-3 burnt-out ones. Sigh. I have since tried solar popcorn popping with a curved mirror and with a large Fresnel lens. I had to move the spot around a lot for even heat distribution, and then the kernels that didn't burn basically popped on only one side.
I then tried a black-colored decorative corn (which, BTW, pops spectacularly in the microwave, into tasty, large fluffy kernels-- but I think the cob might start a fire....). I had somewhat more success here, but it was still with fewer pops than I could count on one hand.
I then tried a black-colored decorative corn (which, BTW, pops spectacularly in the microwave, into tasty, large fluffy kernels-- but I think the cob might start a fire....). I had somewhat more success here, but it was still with fewer pops than I could count on one hand.
I think perhaps a microwave "hot zone" might be worth reconsidering. Also, perhaps, the unpopped kernel could be surrounded on three or four sides by lasers/ heat sources... Ideally, four to 20 lasers would fire on the thing from all directions almost instantaneously, like the Shiva laser trying to achieve fusion in a deuterium fuel pellet.
I hope to come up with a more practical idea someday...
-BJL
