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what’s your best “nitric acid acts upon trousers” moment? (mander.xyz)

submitted 2 days ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/science_memes@mander.xyz

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[-] Davel23@fedia.io 51 points 2 days ago

I once decided to see what would happen if I connected the terminals of a 6v lantern battery with an unbent paperclip. Turns out it glows red hot and hurts like a motherfucker when you grab it in a panic to disconnect it.

[-] blueduck@piefed.social 34 points 2 days ago

My dad had a power cable that had frayed, so he cut the exposed copper and threw away the appliance but not the plug???

So anyway, I found the plug with exposed copper mess. I plugged it into the wall and he came FLYING into the room telling me to unplug it. Beautiful sparks and light show

[-] Davel23@fedia.io 30 points 2 days ago

Oh wow, that reminds me of another incident. In my early teens my dad was doing some home renovations, and had a bunch of power tools lying around. He had an electric drill with a three-pronged plug but only had an extension cable which accepted two prongs. So of course he just crammed the drill's plug into the extension cable as best it would fit. It worked, but left a good part of the prongs exposed. Upon seeing this I figured I could get the plug further in so I grabbed it and started pushing on both sides as hard as I could. Perhaps unsurprisingly this did not seat the plug any better but did cause my fingers to slip and contact the exposed prongs. This caused my entire arm to feel like it was numb and vibrating like crazy at the same time. It was such a weird sensation that I just had to grab the plug again to feel it a second time.. Reflecting upon this incident later I realized I probably could have been killed.

[-] luciferofastora@feddit.org 12 points 2 days ago

I think my grandpa once told me you could first touch ground, then load (or whatever it's called in English) with the same hand and would be fine. Just make sure to let go of load first or you'll ground it through your body and that would be no fun.

I never did try it. His confidence in some things bordered on recklessness, much to his wife's horror at times. He was fairly healthy up until a stroke at 85, so maybe he knew what he was doing. Or maybe he just got lucky so often it becomes indistinguishable from skill.

[-] WhoIzDisIz@lemmy.today 9 points 2 days ago

I think in theory he was correct, but you had better be confident in that ground wire's actual connection to ground.

[-] luciferofastora@feddit.org 2 points 2 days ago

Well, with his house, he will have been very confident. With my current apartment, I'm glad at least three of the four light switches correspond to actual lights. No clue what the fourth one is supposed to toggle. No way in hell am I trusting the ground wire.

[-] DontRedditMyLemmy@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago

I've touched 110vac several times. It's not smart, but most cases aren't deadly.

[-] WhoIzDisIz@lemmy.today 4 points 2 days ago

I've done it numerous times with 220VAC as a child in Europe. Might just have been the youth that saved me, tho.

[-] MacAnus@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

Same, I wasn't that young though, late 20s early 30s.
One time I was wiring a live plug (I know) and I got shocked though both arms and shoulders.
That was quite the lesson

[-] smh@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 day ago

Did you know an American 10¢ coin is the perfect size to drop behind a plug-in night light, such that it gets stuck between the power plug prongs? You can then unplug the night light and the dime drops to the floor, with two impressive marks taken out of it.