[sdiy] Odp: Re: Semi-OT: odd capacitor values

[Phillip Harbison]

Colin Hinz wrote:
> I'm sorry, but how is this even a point of discussion?
> The "MFD" designation was standard nomenclature for
> "microfarad" well into the late 1960s or early 1970s.

I had a lab partner for Instrumentation who had worked for TVA
for about 20 years and was going back to finish his degree. I
was 20 but had spend a couple of years working for a company
that did custom microprocessor-based industrial control work.
Needless to say, we both knew our way around a lab. We would
make a plan, split up the tasks and get right to it, usually
finishing a 4 hour lab in 1.5 hours.

Midway through the quarter, a student dropped the course so
the instructor assigned his partner to our team. She had no
experience with anything but insisted on scrutinizing every
part we pulled and every step we took. One day she's looking
at a 200 µF cap I pulled and asked what it was. I pointed
to it on the schematic saying "it's C5, a 200 microfarad cap".
She furled her brow, stared at the part and said "it says
200 M-F-D. How do you know that's not 200 MEGA farads?" She
was dead serious. My partner almost died laughing.

We never got out of that lab in less than 4 hours again. :(

-- 
Phil Harbison