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Kaibzey t1_j681ptp wrote

Reply to comment by Jaffacakereddit in ELI5: why can't we use electricity to kill microorganisms in small amount of water ? by FreshT3ch

Whoa this was educational haha.

Makes sense.....electricity works on potential differences, which get larger with distances! So large organisms can straddle much larger potential difference zones.

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Chromotron t1_j682q7w wrote

Fun fact: this is also the reason why you cannot microwave fruit flies (in case you ever tried... for... reasons...).

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Marsstriker t1_j68it8r wrote

Some googling seems to suggest you very much can microwave flies. There are however some spots inside a microwave that don't receive as much energy, so a fly might survive if it largely stays within those points.

Besides which, microwaves don't work by electrocuting what's put inside them.

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Chromotron t1_j68mw2t wrote

Fruit flies, not normal flies. Normal flies are large enough to die. The heating of an object significantly below the wavelength (centimeters) is proportional to the size, due to the electric potential created by the microwaves. The fruit flies also have the added bonus of much surface area per volume.

It is also not just the sweet spots, the flies survive even if they move around randomly. Anyway, here is a video by Cody.

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