Toothpick & Microwave

Do not try this at home. The host warns you repeatedly -- because lighting a toothpick on fire and sticking it in a microwave maybe creating plasma -- the fourth state of matter. As the story goes, carbon vapour from the burning toothpick, is ionized by the microwave radiation, ie. the molecules in the carbon vapour loose electrons. In the excited state, the carbon vapour is transformed into plasma -- the balls of fire that appear from the vapour in the microwave.