When I was a kid, in the late 70's, I used to do that on purpose.

I attached small electrolytic caps to wooden sticks, stretched their
legs and inserted into the 220 V outlets. What a bang!

Never got hurt, fortunately. But then I never used big ones. Never found
a trace of their material too.

Cheers,

Isaac



Em 26/02/2018 09:40, picram@roadrunner.com escreveu:
> High school. Rat's nest of free space wiring. Neon bulbs, capacitors
> (relaxation ring oscillator). Powered by half bridge directly from AC lin=
e
> (no transformer). Main supply cap probably 50uF @ 200V or so. Short circu=
it.
> Small rocket dragging 115VAC / 160VDC all around the workbench. Much
> excitement.
>
> - - Bob Ammerman
> RAm Systems
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu] On Behalf =
Of
> DrSkip
> Sent: Monday, February 26, 2018 12:09 AM
> To: piclist@mit.edu
> Subject: Re: [EE] "X" marks the spot
>
> I suspect the X is initially weaker than the glue holding the can on, so
> rapid pressure increase will break open there. Perhaps over the 30 minute=
s
> heat weakened the glue to the point of it being the weak point for a grad=
ual
> pressure buildup.
>
> Dr Skip
>
>
> On 02/25/2018 08:36 PM, Bob Blick wrote:
>> By mistake I put an electrolytic capacitor in backwards. A very generic
> 100uF, 50V cap exposed to 16V with the equivalent of about 700 ohms in
> series with it. It lasted about 30 minutes, then went off with a bang. Yo=
u
> can maybe see the damaged heatshrink where the can hit an immovable objec=
t.
>> Please note the scored cross on the top of the can. Isn't that=20
>> supposed to split and protect me from its rapid self-disassembly? Yes,=20
>> I was right there, close at hand, trying to figure out why all the=20
>> voltages were wrong. Perhaps their die for the venting "X" was worn=20
>> out after 20 million caps. I guess that's what I get when I pay USD=20
>> 0.03 for caps off of Aliexpress instead of USD 0.11 at Digi-Key :)
>>
>> I guess I learned a lesson in false economy today. I didn't lose an eye,
> but I'm going to change my buying habits a little. Obviously I made a
> mistake putting the cap in wrong, but if I'd used a quality cap perhaps I=
'd
> have only been startled with a scary hiss instead of a projectile. Take
> heed! How many lives do you really have?
>> Cheerful regards,
>>
>> Bob
>>
>>
>>
>>
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nge
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