You ever stop and think about how much in our lives depends on electrons moving along conductors?
Even just a little dab of electricity makes a world of difference.
Due to recent cold spells, rain, and general lack of use around here, I have spent the morning dealing with dead batteries on vehicles, bikes, and ATVs.
And one fuel issue (tractor, filters, diesel algae)
But seriously, I do not believe our society, AS WE KNOW IT, could make it w/o this magical, invisible (most times), “juice”.

It really is a beautiful thing!

It is witchcraft! (but I'm glad we have it...)

It becomes voodoo when you touch the wrong things at the wrong time.

quote:

Originally posted by darthfuster:
It becomes voodoo when you touch the wrong things at the wrong time.

My son and I were just watching this yesterday. We were crying we were laughing so hard...




Link to original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y74bK1NtIQU

A good read is "One Second After" by William R. Forstchen. It sure made me thankful for the electricity which we take for granted.

Yup. But it's even more basic to than that.

Your body is totally controlled by it and we could literally not live without it.

No, life would be grim without it for most of mankind.

I think it would be even more grim than depicted in Revolution where we reverted back to about a 1800-era level of technology and life.

I'm thinking that 80-95% of the world would starve off and we'd be more in a level around 1100-era.

I forget where I found this, but it is truth and wisdom:


The Ten Commandments of Electrical Safety

1) Beware of lightning that lurketh in an undischarged capacitor lest it cause thee to bounce upon thy buttocks in a most embarrassing manner.

2) Cause thou the switch that supplieth large quantities of juice to be opened and thusly tagged, that thy days may be long on this earth.

3) Prove to thyself that all circuits that radiateth and upon which thou worketh are grounded and thusly tagged, lest they lift thee to a radio frequency potential and causeth thee to make like a radiator, too.

4) Tarry thou not amongst those fools that engage in intentional shocks, for they are not long for this world and are surely unbelievers.

5) Take care thou useth the proper method when thou taketh the measures of high voltage circuits so that thou dost not incinerate both thee and thy testmeter, for verily, though thou hast no stocknumber and may not be identified, thy testmeter has one and as a consequence will bringeth much woe unto the supply clerk.

6) Take care thou tamperest not with interlocks and safety devices, for this incurreth the wrath of thy supervisor and bringeth the fury of the Safety Department upon his head.

7) Work thou not on energized equipment for if thou dost so, thy colleagues will surely gather around thy grave shortly after.

8) Verily I say unto thee: never service equipment alone, for electrical cooking is a slow process and thou might sizzle for hours on end before thy Maker sees fit to end thy misery and drag thee into His fold.

9) Trifle thee not with radioactive tubes and like substances, lest thou commence to glow in the dark like a firefly and thy spouse be frustrated and have no further use for thee except to pay thy wages.

10) Thou shalt not make unauthorized modifications to equipment, but thou shall cause to be recorded all technical directives and authorized changes made by thee, lest thy successor rend his hair and go mad in his attempt to work out the tangled spaghetti in the wiring.

It's rather shocking when you realize all the things it can do.

Ah, the almost forgotten days of high school electric shop. When we used to charge up an Electrolytic Capacitor with around 250-300 volts and let it lay on a table.

Waiting for an totally innocent student to pick it up.

If you don't believe that electricity is pure magic, let the magic smoke out of an electric device and it will never work again.

Or we would all be chopping wood at least weekly.

quote:

Originally posted by ChuckWall:
Or we would all be chopping wood at least weekly.

More like chopping at each other with swords.

That video was hilarious, I certainly hope he was deliberately trying to be entertaining. If not, he should not ever do any more electricity experiments, cause he sucks at it BIG TIME!!

that video was great - he's a highly skilled rocket surgeon

Ben Franklin thought that one use for electricity was that “it helps make a vain man humble.”

Those of us who have played around with radios, especially back in the tube era when voltages might be fairly high, learned a few lessons about humility the hard way.

Electricity doesn't power anything. It's all a lie.
What really makes everything work is a little bit of magic smoke. If you let this smoke out of the device it stops working!

quote:

Originally posted by LS1 GTO:
It's rather shocking when you realize all the things it can do.

You've no idea really. Having worked at Florida Power and Light for 25yrs in Power Delivery/ Substations, some of the things I saw happen or afterwards would likely be classified as "Unknown" because you just can't comprehend what Transmission and Distribution voltages can do until you witness it yourself. Be afraid but respect what you cannot see and likely cannot hear but you definitely can feel. At several of our Substations during the summer months, you could put out your hands and actually feel the electromagnetic fields given off by transmission voltages of 240 Kv or higher, just letting you know that you'd be best served by not going much further in that direction

Good observations. And just think...although our culture is getting pretty fancy with how we push around electrons, somewhere there is probably a civilization that can do the same things with photons what we do with electrons.