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How To Cook An Egg With Two Cell Phones
Status: Joke
image No, it's not possible to cook an egg with two cell phones. At least, not by using the method outlined on wymsey.co.uk. The instructions basically boil down to this: place an egg between two phones, use one phone to call the other, and then wait for radio signals to cook the egg. Wymsey notes that cooking time:

very much depends on the power output of your mobile phone. For instance, a pair of mobiles each with 2 Watts of transmitter output will take three minutes to boil a large free range egg. Check your user manual and remember that cooking time will be proportional to the inverse square of the output power for a given distance from egg to phone.

As I said, this method definitely won't work (though I wouldn't rule out there being some kind of MacGyver way to cook an egg involving highly polished cellphones and reflected sunlight). What should be noted, however, is that Wymsey never intended anyone to believe it would work. The instructions are a joke. A lot of sites (including, surprisingly, Boing Boing) don't seem to have realized this. (Isn't the name Wymsey a giveaway?) The Wymsey site (which chronicles the goings-on in the fictional village of Wymsey) was created by Charlie Ivermee back in 1998, and he wrote the egg article in 2000. In an interview with Gelf Magazine he explains why he wrote the article:

“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.”
Categories: Food, Technology
Posted by Alex on Tue Feb 07, 2006
Comments (11)
More from the Hoax Museum Archives:
Bear in mind brainiac (a comedy science programme in the UK) tried using 100 to boil and egg and failed...
Posted by davetolomy  on  Tue Feb 07, 2006  at  11:59 PM
Maybe the article is an attempt to weed out the false positives in the Wymsey Search for Terrestial intelligence?
http://wymsey.co.uk/sti/sti.htm
Posted by captain DaFt  on  Wed Feb 08, 2006  at  04:13 AM
Heh, this one's funny. The fact that the egg is placed between the two phones has no relevance, as cell phones (except for those Nextel radio phones) don't communciate directly with each other; their radio signals are in communication with cell-phone towers which then route the signal via wire. Of course, this too is irrelevant, as the signal doesn't make a bee-line for its intended target, it's broadcast as a multidirectional sphere.
Posted by UsuallyDark  on  Thu Feb 09, 2006  at  01:30 PM
i tired thish at home
Posted by eggs grader  on  Thu Apr 12, 2007  at  06:37 PM
I notice a lot of pro and con discussion about popcorn and cellphones lately. Notice that the popcorn kernels are surrounded by at least three cellphones with antennae pointed at the kernels. Kernels must be in middle of area so all cellphone antennae transmissions center on them. You can see movies on youtube. Lots of movies!
Posted by appliance parts  on  Thu Jul 03, 2008  at  03:03 AM
Um, cellphone antennas are omnidirectional. Otherwise you would have to point them at the tower to get them to work. There would be no reason to 'point' them at the kernals.
Posted by Charybdis  on  Thu Jul 03, 2008  at  10:11 AM
I thought the idea of cooking an egg with to cell phones was rediculous. You'd be better off frying the egg on a car that's been in the sun on a hot day.
Posted by LG Shine Phones  on  Sun Aug 10, 2008  at  07:20 AM
yea u cant cook an egg but get four or five cell phones around a couple popcorn kernals and get them to ring at the same time theyll turn right into edible popcorn...try this at home or the next time ur at a party....it works...
Posted by Rich F  on  Thu Jan 22, 2009  at  12:11 AM
Have you done the popcorn experiment? Its funny that you say it works because CNN did an interview with the person that created the first few videos of the "popping kernels" and admited that it was nothing more than a marketing stragety to get people to buy their bluetooth headsets. Seriously people its called video editing.
Posted by David  on  Thu Jan 22, 2009  at  02:00 PM
This is really concerning. What are mobile phones doing to our heads if they do this to eggs?
Posted by Property Developer  on  Sat May 08, 2010  at  12:20 PM
Written very intellectally, a great view of criticism is used with so much perfection and diplomatic view. i like this post and will bookmark it for collection. thanks for the post.
Posted by Calling Cards  on  Mon Nov 29, 2010  at  12:01 AM
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