Cell phones and popcorn: The truth pops up

There's a lot of bad information out there. But you can believe something you see with your own eyes, right? Not really, or so it goes for the viral video of cell phones popping popcorn.

By now, the clip of friends setting their cell phones around popcorn kernels and then calling the cell phones, making the corn pop has been tried by enough YouTube fans, including engineers, average Joes and Southeast Missourian staff members, that it is officially debunked. But why doesn't it work?

Local science guru Jason Lindsey helped explain.

"The way popcorn pops is it has moisture inside the kernel," he said. The microwave heats the moisture and cracks the kernel, thus giving us that popular movie treat.

"A cell phone doesn't heat from inside out, and it just doesn't put off enough energy," Lindsey said. If it did, "it would be burning your leg if you had it in your pocket."

The original videos — one each from Japan, France and America — were posted within a few days of each other by the same two users. Since bringing in millions of hits (the U.S. version has had more than 6 million views), the videos have also brought hundreds of spin-offs. One shows four cell phones turning a raw piece of meat into a cooked steak, complete with mashed potatoes and green beans.

The videos turned out to be advertisements for Cardo Systems, which makes Bluetooth headsets. Both of the original posters, bobtel08 and benzin513, now have links to the company.

As for the claim that a cell phone can cook anything: "That's a big joke," Lindsey said.

The videos were simply good editing and great advertising.

"Bottom line," Lindsey said, "the pressure created when heating the water causes the kernel to eventually pop. If the energy from a cell phone was able to do this, we would be in big trouble."