If you happen to be driving through southern Ontario and spot a 20-foot tall bag of popcorn, don’t worry: you’re not imagining things.
This isn’t any ordinary bag of popcorn. It’s one that has a lightning rod running down the middle of it. And it’s sitting just outside Windsor, Canada’s lightning capital.
Cineplex has placed the giant bag of unpopped kernels in the town of Tilbury as part of its #weatherornot campaign. The goal? To see if the kernels will pop if hit by lightning.
A single bolt of lightning can reach searing temperatures of about 27,000 C, five times hotter than the surface of the sun.
Popcorn kernels pop as a result of several factors: heat; moisture inside the kernel; starch; and the hardness of the shell. The shell traps the heat and then the moisture increases the pressure, causing the starch to expand and explode.
Wondering if it will pop or not? You can vote until Sept. 2, at Cineplex’s #weatherornot page. Not only that, but, if there’s a storm blowing through the area, you can also watch it live with their webcam on the same page.
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