Off-topic: danger of 120v mains?

[Vic Vector]

I recall one of my litany of stupid childhood experiments, removing a plug from
an outlet half way and dropping a laminated piece of C shaped ferrite core I had
pulled from a transformer on top of the two exposed prongs.

Lots of sparks, lots of black marks on the wall, and neat 1 cm long cutouts on 
the ferrite piece.

Then there's the time I microwaved Jell-O for 12 minutes and placed the jar on a
cold windowsill. It exploded, I bled a lot. (superheated water experiments are
neat too).

I guess we're all lucky we're not dead.


On Wed, Jan 03, 2001 at 12:54:47AM -0500, CHoaglin at aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 1/2/01 8:52:34 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
> harrybissell at prodigy.net writes:
> 
> << Another major danger (usually forgotten) is arc damage.  Picture the 
> toddler
>  putting a hairpin, or paper clip, or piece of wire, across the 120VAC.  The 
> arc
>  
>  could flame spray that metal into unprotected face, start a fire which 
> finishes
>  the
>  job etc. >>
> 
> Toddler??? Me and a friend were doing that way back in 8th grade...Sitting in 
> detention really bored, take a paper clip and bend it into a "U", then wrap 
> with paper for insulation and use to ground one of the legs of the AC to the 
> outlet plate...sparks ensued, a large burn mark appeared on the outlet plate, 
> and the paper clip flew out of the outlet and shot across the room...so we 
> did it again, naturally. It was the school, after all, so we didn't care too 
> much about damaging it...
> 
> 
> Chris

--