Electrical question

[Deja Q]

If I take a power cable, cut off the other end, strip the leads, tie the leads together, and then plug it into the wall socket, apart from the lights probably going out, what might happen?

(there's a good reason for this... and I've put in a hint below!)

[ghostsofgiants]

1. Haha, no good can come from this.

[Deja Q]

2. Well, that's a lovely thought, but it doesn't answer my question!

:rofl:

[Briarius]

3. Minimum, you blow the breaker/fuse*

but it's quite possible that before the breaker trips the short can melt the wire and splatter molten metal around. Wear safety glasses and keep a flashlight handy and you'll probably be ok (*provided your house is wired properly)

[BrotherBuzz]

4. That's what us lazy electricians do to locate the circuit breakers....

on a convoluted jobs with wiring going everywhere. Instant gratification in locating the lost breaker - and i mean instant!

[Wcross]

5. I would think nothing would happen (with a warning)

If you connected the positive and negative lines you would just complete the curcit. Just don't tie in the ground wire and you should be good.

[BrotherBuzz]

7. Either neutral or ground connected to the hot lead will

throw the circuit. Bank on it!

[pimpbot]

9. Actually

In household single phase wiring there is a Hot wire, neutral wire, and the ground. The ground and neutral should be tied into the same buss in your circuit breaker panel.

[BrotherBuzz]

13. Actually you want to keep neutral and ground separate these days....

Some electronic equipment need a dedicated ground to avoid that 60 cycle buzz - electronic wizards could explain it better but I try to keeps the two separate whenever possible. Modern breaker boxes have a separate ground and neutral bussbar.

[Wcross]

15. Good thing I didn't offer to test my theory!

That does sound like a good way to find a breaker!

[BrotherBuzz]

23. Not a GOOD way, but a proven way (and I emphasize lazy way)...

the sacrificial receptacle does get trashed and always needs replacing, but in the bigger picture, they are very cheap! Time is money.

[Deja Q]

26. And money is a silly concept.

:D

[BrotherBuzz]

30. Silly people say I have no concept of money......

Roscoe W. Chandler (Louis Sorin): The nickel today is not what it used to be ten years ago.

Captain Spaulding (Groucho): Well, I'll go further than that. I'll get off at the depot. The nickel today is not what it was fifteen years ago. Do you know what this country needs today?

Chandler: What?

Spaudling: A seven cent nickel. Yes siree, we've been using the five-cent nickel in this country since 1492. Now that's pretty near 100 years daylight saving. Now why not give the seven cent nickel a chance? If that works out, next year we can have an eight cent nickel. Think what that would mean? You could go to a newsstand, buy a three cent newspaper, and get the same nickerl back again. One nickel carefully used would last a family a life-time.

Chandler: Captain Spaulding, I think that is a wonderful idea.

Spaulding: You do, eh?

Chandler: Yes.

Spaudling: Well, then there can't be much to it. Forget about it.

[bonito]

29. You better stay away from electricity!

[pimpbot]

6. Provided you trust whoever wired your house

It would almost instantly trip the breaker or blow a fuse. You'd probably see sparks from the outlet as soon as the prongs made contact. I'm not sure how much juice you'd actually get flowing across the twisted together part before the breaker trips.

Plan on killing a few peeps? :)

You're better off attaching those bare wires to some forks and sticking the forks in opposite ends of the peep and seeing what happens (without touching the forks btw).

[Deja Q]

8. LOL, I was going to use the ends as probes...

But not without the forks; I just bought some new ones...

Sparks would be nice! :evilgrin:

[pimpbot]

10. what happened to the old forks?

Thats what old forks are for!! :) Mad scientist electrical projects!

[Deja Q]

11. Donated...

Still, those were big forks... for a big mouth. Peeps are small. Barely a mouthful. And I read what's in them too. :D

[Briarius]

16. I do have plans around here somewhere for a do-it-yourself taser

if you really want sparks... Or you can crack an old tv and get the flyback circuit that drives the electron gun, although that would probably just blow a hole through the peeps :evilgrin:

[Deja Q]

18. I would LOVE to know that!

:evilgrin:

Anything just to fry the peep and get it on camera... :crazy: :evilgrin:

[Briarius]

19. I don't think the taser would work for frying it

Not really enough current... The flyback would be the better "bang" for your buck, but unless you know exactly what you are doing, don't try it. You screw that up and you'll be in a world of hurt

[Deja Q]

17. Update:

I stuck 'em in and it got a little warm. :( Nothing camera-worthy. :cry:

And just think, if I were normal, I'd be doing better things! :rofl:

[Briarius]

20. try adding a little water

just enough to get the juice flowin
:evilgrin:


I can't believe I'm encouraging you...be careful!

[Deja Q]

22. Into marshmallow?!

Hmmm... might be hard and it'd be more fun just to make a peep omelet anyway... :9

[Briarius]

24. yea, trying to lower the resistance of the peep

ala Rabrrrrrr, you gotta give the current an easier path through the peep

[Rabrrrrrr]

21. Peeps have to much resistance to current flow - what you need to do

is get the leads settled far into the peeps, and so the leads are very close together but not touching - I would think maybe 3 or 4 mm would do it. That shoudl be close enough for some decent current flow to melt the sonsabitches, but won't trip the breaker.

HOWEVER - because the current will be in such a small area, the heat will be concentrated there, and so you won't have a glorious and dramatic catastrophic failure of the peep, you'll have only a small, slow meltdown. Probably still interesting, but more like watching a hot air balloon deflate then it will be watching a hindenberg explode.

You're only real option, if you want to make those fuckers go up nice, is to find yourself a 600V or more outlet, which you aren't gonna find at home. You need A LOT more voltage differential than home wiring can deliver. OR - if you have a step-up transformer, and you're pretty confident of your abilities, you can step up your own voltage - especially if you have a 10:1 or 20:1 step up transformer, you will be able to melt them nicely.

[BrotherBuzz]

31. You might try impaling them Peeps on a Slim Jim....

The Slim Jim contains salt and will conduct just enough electricity to do the job. Heck, you could fire up the whole package of those evil Peeps in one fell swoop, lining your ducks up in a row, so to speak.

Peep kebabs?
:crazy:

[Deja Q]

32. Hmm, and I could be clever in impaling the peeps too!

:rofl:

[BrotherBuzz]

33. Ummm, yes, I guess you have artistic license on that

:rofl:

[Oeditpus Rex]

12. ...

[sendero]

14. It really depends...

... on several things.

If the wire is too small (gauge, cross-section of copper), it will get hot and the insulation will drip off before the breaker kicks in.

Now if it is a big enough wire, it depends on how well you plug it in. If you forcefully jam the plug into the socket, quickly and straight, almost nothing will happen except the breaker (if functional) will trip.

If however, you sloppily insert the plug, at an angle where it makes tentative contact before making a good solid contact, well you will get a lot of sparks, metal and plastic will burn, you will ruin your plug and your wall socket :)

[yellowdogmi]

25. What did the redneck say before he died?

Hey ya'll watch this.
Not implying you are a redneck or that there is anything wrong with being one. Just saying.
Be Careful!
Sermon over.

[TheBaldyMan]

27. FOR GODS SAKE STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING NOW!

if there is no load on the circuit, with an unimpeded current you could start a fire or might kill someone, if you are lucky you will blow a fuse.

[bonito]

28. Tried that once

Big blue spark, all lights out, some smoke, everybody comes running, a feeling oops better not go there again.