I wonder, do people living at high altitude often get chip bags that are really inflated due to the pressure difference from where they're packaged?
@Felthry Having lived at ~5,500 feet, and ~8,000 feet, yes.
@starkatt like little chip-filled balloons.
@Felthry very puffy but aluminized mylar doesn't stretch so they stay pretty much bag-shaped.
@starkatt ooh, randomly remembered, have you ever tried the microwave-chip-bag thing? it's _fascinating_ and seems like you might enjoy it
@starkatt okay so get a small chip bag of the metallized plastic variety (small as in the size they sell at sandwich shops), empty it out (presumably eat the contents, but this step is not required and you can do something else with the contents if you so desire), then just stick it in the microwave, centered as well as you can (as long as it's not able to touch the walls of the microwave there's no risk of damage) and turn on the microwave for ten or fifteen seconds, and enjoy the show
@Felthry Aluminized mylar is one of those technologies that people never think about but is actually really impressive.
@starkatt This process actually converts the mylar (which is a form of LDPE) to HDPE, the same stuff milk jugs are made out of!
@Felthry ahhhh I didn't know that! :D
@Felthry HDPE is a good-ass plastic.
@starkatt It is. Really cheap, easily worked, and easy to recycle.
@starkatt (the cheapness is probably at least partly because of how easy to recycle it is)
@starkatt I find myself curious now what exactly the reaction mechanism is when the shrinkage occurs
it's not really a proper reaction though, pretty sure it's just like, long straight molecules becoming long less-straight molecules
they're coming out of the closet!
@starkatt (maybe I should have left it a surprise exactly what happens, oops)
@starkatt (there's a lot of little sparks and the bag shrinks to about the size of a postage stamp!)