I wrote that in the wee hours of the morning, in a bout of insomnia.
I couldn't come up with the term dipolar. I knew that bi-polar wasn't quite right, but went with it anyway.

So, any idea why a lit candle in a running microwave will produce ball lightning and make it look like Gozer has moved from the fridge to the microwave?
( Wanderer, Mon 17 Jan 2011, 1:12, 1 reply)

Short answer...
no idea.

Ugi: I have to agree with your explanation and don't understand why the mythbusters guys say that it's not clear why it explodes etc. They do mention that the thermite reaction produces around 4000 C and I don't have a problem seeing why that would explode in contact with water!
(el perro grande, Mon 17 Jan 2011, 10:06, closed)

If you watch the link he gave
there's a vid of someone lighting thermite on a frozen lake, and there's no explosion. I notice that they're using a much smaller amount of thermite than they did on Mythbusters. Jamie speculated that the flash of steam may have aerosolized the thermite, so perhaps you need to burn a large enough quantity of it to have some unburned when it flashes?
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Mon 17 Jan 2011, 15:29, closed)

Yep
makes perfect sense to me.
(el perro grande, Wed 19 Jan 2011, 23:23, closed)