I'll see your paper clip and raise you a steel ruler :)

A little background.. For those that don't know, in Australia all the power
outlets are individually switched.. and normally the switch is above the
socket (sometimes a little offset to the side).

Back in High-School in a science lab the power points were for some reason
quite difficult to pull a plug out of. So one day in class a friend of mine
needed to unplug a piece of equipment..

Now this guy is a big lad.. about 6.5 foot tall even when he was in year 8..
He tries to pull the out the plug and can't get it out..

So, he reasons that he needs some leverage and picks up his ruler - made of
nice shiny steel.

He tuns off the switch (safety first you know) and proceeds to jam the ruler
into the top of the plug to lever it out of the socket. This is, of course,
a perfectly rational thing to do :)

As he is rocking the ruler back and forth to extract the plug it presses
against the switch and **BANG**.

One bright flash, one loud noise, one expletive from the teacher and the
circuit breakers kicks in and throws the lab into darkness :)

My friend is left standing there with a look of utter disbelief on his face
and a steel ruler with two melted notches in the end.. I think he still has
it to this day.. :)

Cheers,
Ash.

---
Ashley Roll
Digital Nemesis Pty Ltd
www.digitalnemesis.com
Mobile: +61 (0)417 705 718




> -----Original Message-----
> From: pic microcontroller discussion list
> [mailto:PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU]On Behalf Of Brendan Moran
> Sent: Wednesday, 28 August 2002 2:25 AM
> To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
> Subject: Re: [EE]: The joys of electronics
>
>
> > > 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.

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