Weird experiences you've had...

[Henro]

I posted this in a different forum, but thought I bet others have had equally surprising experiences as they grew up and over the years afterwards...

If you have, you might post for the enjoyment of the rest of us...LOL

Some may find it amusing how my high school shop teacher taught his students about electricity. He had us all stand in a circle, all holding hands, and chose two students to break the circle, and put a wire in each of their hands, and plugged it into a 120 VAC outlet. You could feel a tingle in your chest. He said, that is Electricity! Now you have experienced it...

This is honestly a true story...

 

[Biker1mike]

I posted this in a different forum, but thought I bet others have had equally surprising experiences as they grew up and over the years afterwards...

If you have, you might post for the enjoyment of the rest of us...LOL

Some may find it amusing how my high school shop teacher taught his students about electricity. He had us all stand in a circle, all holding hands, and chose two students to break the circle, and put a wire in each of their hands, and plugged it into a 120 VAC outlet. You could feel a tingle in your chest. He said, that is Electricity! Now you have experienced it...

This is honestly a true story...

Our shop teacher put a wired fork in each end of a hotdog and then plugged them. in Instant burnt meat. He then told us if you royally screw up in this class that will be your heart.

 

[chim]

We had one teacher explain that if it weren't for the centrifugal force created by the earth spinning we'd be too heavy to stand.

We were young and impressionable, so nobody thought to aske what would happen to someone at the North Pole or South Pole.

 

[Pawnee]

My electronics teacher told us that this is the room in the school where you can die the most quickly, with the least amount of bleeding.
Those were the days eh?

Also, we cooked hot dogs like that on purpose. And, years later you could buy a hot dog cooker that put 110VAC on them.
I think it did 4 at a time.

Finally, Henro, you have great ideas for stirring the pot.

 

[Lil Foot]

Back in ancient times when we were dating, my wife and I were coming back from a 4wd run, pretty late at night, near Cave Creek, AZ.
As the LandCruiser started up a steep grade, a gigantic spider crossed in front of us, probably 10ft tall, 30ft around.
After momentarily being scared witless, we realized it was a normal size (5") tarantula walking at the peak of the hill, and my headlights projected his shadow on a rock face about 50ft further up the trail.
It is amazing how your imagination can fool you, even if only briefly.
The pic below is about the right scale.

 

[GeoHorn]

We had one teacher explain that if it weren't for the centrifugal force created by the earth spinning we'd be too heavy to stand.

We were young and impressionable, so nobody thought to aske what would happen to someone at the North Pole or South Pole.

That’s WHY there’s no one at the North or South Pole….

 

[Lil Foot]

Also, we cooked hot dogs like that on purpose. And, years later you could buy a hot dog cooker that put 110VAC on them.
I think it did 4 at a time.

When I was a bachelor, I had one of those.
Mine was similar to this one:
It did a pretty good lob, if you cut off the ends where the electrodes burned the weenie.

 

[OrangeKrush]

When I was a bachelor, I had one of those.
Mine was similar to this one:
It did a pretty good lob, if you cut off the ends where the electrodes burned the weenie.

View attachment 89554

The best part!

 

[Matt Ellerbee]

When I was a bachelor, I had one of those.
Mine was similar to this one:
It did a pretty good lob, if you cut off the ends where the electrodes burned the weenie.

View attachment 89554

That’s a battery charger.

 

[DaveFromMi]

I think it was 2nd grade science. We built an electromagnet with a dry cell, wire, and a nail. It worked well, but I thought it would be better if I plugged it into a 120V outlet. I wired an electrical plug to it.
I tried it at home. I was surprised that the nail vibrated at 60 hz and I soon blew a fuse. That was my first lesson on alternating current.

 

[Pawnee]

It was a Presto Hotdogger.
Here is one for sale.
Don't buy it.
Don't eat hot dogs either.

 

[GeoHorn]

 

[85Hokie]

Well gents

Our shop teacher put a wired fork in each end of a hotdog and then plugged them. in Instant burnt meat. He then told us if you royally screw up in this class that will be your heart.

Well, as a "shop" teacher of 36 years I too had fun day in my student teaching days.

Circa 1984, student teaching - explaining to a bunch of 8th grade boys how a 4 stroke engine basically worked.

Got through all 4 strokes and then some kid asked - how is the spark created without a battery?

Rabbit hole #1 .............. well Johnny, as a magnet spins around a loop of wire........, ok not exactly how it went

A spark is created .......

Ol Johnny said I do not believe that is true!

Come up to the front and touch this lead on the end of the armature while I turn the flywheel then!

He did - (no plug in head) I turned it slowly .......... little bitty feeling he had.......

He said do it again - I did.

Rabbit hole #2 ........

CAN YOU SPIN IT FASTER?????? He said .....as his finger was getting numb.


I would be fired and stuck under the jail in these days of education! No if I had a cell phone to use in that demo, everything would be fine - cause whatever these kids see on Tik-Tok has got to be the truth!

 

[Biker1mike]

Well gents
Well, as a "shop" teacher of 36 years I too had fun day in my student teaching days.
clipped

Nothing like hands on.
I used to give a fast safety talk in an industrial lab. This could be new hires to college interns.
We would gather in front of a hood, place a chicken leg in sulfuric acid and in a few second pull out a black skinless leg. A penny in nitric acid would fume like crazy and be paper thin while we talked.
While that got their attention I dropped the bomb with , "and now we have chemicals here that may or may not give you cancer in 10 -20 years. When you get home look up teratogen. Now we are one of the safest labs in the world. Follow the rules , pay attention and you can a long and safe career".

 

[Flintknapper]

I think it was 2nd grade science. We built an electromagnet with a dry cell, wire, and a nail. It worked well, but I thought it would be better if I plugged it into a 120V outlet. I wired an electrical plug to it.
I tried it at home. I was surprised that the nail vibrated at 60 hz and I soon blew a fuse. That was my first lesson on alternating current.

Is this you?

 

[DaveFromMi]

Could have been my kid. He managed to take a bulb out of a lamp and put his finger in the socket. He was about 4.

 

[Flintknapper]

Could have been my kid. He managed to take a bulb out of a lamp and put his finger in the socket. He was about 4.

My Brother when he was about 5 yrs. old stuck a pair of tweezers in the electrical outlet in the bathroom. Big momentary spark show, blew the ends of the tweezers off and left a big, black spot on the receptacle cover.

 

[ctfjr]

I went to Northeastern University, at that time almost 100% coop school. You did a 13 week semester then a 13 week curriculum related job for the last 4 years of schooll (5 yr program). My coop job was at MIT's Instrumentation Lab in Cambridge. I worked with the engineers and techs. They gave me a tech bench setup to do my work. It was complete with test gear, soldering station etc.

My 1st day I was greeted by the other techs and shown to my bench. They told me the switch for the 115volt outlets was under the bench and just flip it on when I was ready to start work each day.

What they kind of forgot to tell me was they had taken a regular graphite pencil, stripped off both ends, attached a 115 zip cord to it and taped it to the underside of the bench and of course plugged it in.

They walked away, I sat down, flipped the switch . . . scared the living everything out of me. The sound, the flash and the damn smoke!

 

[bmblank]

I think it was 2nd grade science. We built an electromagnet with a dry cell, wire, and a nail. It worked well, but I thought it would be better if I plugged it into a 120V outlet. I wired an electrical plug to it.
I tried it at home. I was surprised that the nail vibrated at 60 hz and I soon blew a fuse. That was my first lesson on alternating current.

I did something similar. We had a little model windmill made from a kit. It was attached to a small solar cell so it spun when in the sun. I had the bright idea to make it spin faster. Luckily I was smart enough not to touch the wires, but... Had the wire plugged into the wall and touched them to the two solder pads on the defunct solar cell.
I didn't get hurt, but I did learn about welding that day.

 

[bmblank]

Our shop teacher put a wired fork in each end of a hotdog and then plugged them. in Instant burnt meat. He then told us if you royally screw up in this class that will be your heart.

Do that except with a pickle. It lights up like a fluorescent bulb.