You can use hot dogs and pickles as speakers by placing them against an AM radio antenna. Also, don’t do that

I'm no scientist, but if I were to make a statement, I would say that the best science is when you set things ablaze. Jeff Geerling might agree with me.

The Geerling Engineering Team has been testing various food items against an AM radio and recording their results. They have found that the results are mostly incendiary. A surprising side effect is that certain watery items seem to start "talking".

Geerling posted a video on YouTube showing the fruits of his labours (or should we say vegetables?) Jeff Geerling's blog provides a detailed breakdown of the team’s latest efforts, as well as a video showing the fruits (or should that be vegetables?) The hot dog was placed on a wooden stick attached to a 12kW AM radio tower. The hot dog started to sizzle as expected, but what was even more surprising was that also acted as a loudspeaker and began audibly playing FM radio .

Please stop and listen to this PSA: Under no circumstances should you touch your nearest AM tower. You're more likely to get RF burns if you touch the tower, as the food used here tends to cook very quickly. At worst? It could be fatal to touch one. You have been warned.

Geerling, his father and other family members experimented on other foods as well, including a corndog, a bratwurst and a pickle. The pickle was especially interesting because it started to burn and also act as a speaker, but it became quieter. This was due to the pickle activating tower's short-circuit protection and reducing power output. Hot dogs are better AM speakers than the pickle. The more you learn!

The hot dog's watery mass is said to demodulate the AM signal, resulting in an audible noise. The hot dog was heated to 80degC and is therefore technically edible. Geerling notes that the charred remains at the end of the hot dog did not look very appetizing.

What about the pickle? The gherkin tasted strongly of copper, so the test was followed by a spitting out. This could be due to the electrolysis effect that the copper used in the grounding has, which means it's unlikely it will catch on as a method of pickle heating for human consumption. Burger chains, beware. There are no new flavour-enhancing methods here.

The bratwurst tests were also conducted while the radio host spoke German. I call that shenanigans, but hey it makes for good YouTube content.

Further experiments will include a possible addition of a fiberglass rod to improve insulation and a high speed camera to capture the interaction between the plasma tower and the food to see if modulation can captured on film. I don't think I expected to see a hot dog that talked today. We are still here.