> > I'll see your fluro starter and raise  you a line of metal can
transistors
> > in the lab power sockets and then turn the mains on.

Well, my version of that (when I was much, much younger, back before I knew
Ohm's law) was a bent paperclip, and an old toaster switch.  I wanted to see
if it would glow...  Well, it did, for about a second, before the main CB
went. (That's right, it tripped the second level breaker.  The breaker for
that branch never blew.

But that's not my best story.  When I was taking a power electronics course
in college, we were in the machines lab, doing some kind of lab with big
resistor banks.  My friend had just finished his lab with his partner, and
they were starting to take down the wiring, when my friend gets shocked and
yelps "Ow!  It's still on!"  His lab partner somehow missinterprets that as
"these resistors sure are hot" and cotinues to disassemble his part of the
circuit, until he drops two of the wires together which, of course, arc for
a second, but not long enough to blow fuses or breakers.  He then says
something to the effect of "Hey, it's still on!"

--Brendan

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