3 ms·
"The power must be monitored and disconnected before the maximum rating of the capacitors is exceeded!" As a teenager I used to love plugging in little electro
by mathgenius 11y ago
"The power must be monitored and disconnected before the maximum rating of the capacitors is exceeded!"
As a teenager I used to love plugging in little electrolytic capacitors into the wall socket. Like, rated for 16v capacitors hit with (in australia) 240v AC. Man those things explode big time :-)
I did actually try this with big capacitors (still low voltage) hoping for a proportionally bigger explosion, but those guys just fizzled.
Alright, just about now I'm thankful the internetz didn't exist back then i could have done some real damage to myself. This rail-gun looks stupidly dangerous.
- scoot 11y agoIt doesn't take mains voltage to get electrolytic capacitors to fail catastrophically. Just reverse the current. (Or rather don't). Nearly lost an eye when a kid I was paired up with in science class made that mistake. The cap blew off with a loud bang, and I was left with a perfectly symmetrical round bruise just above my eyebrow. I never forgave him. Not for nearly blinding me, but because he was happy to let everyone believe it was me who had made the mistake!
- DanBC 11y agoIn theory big capacitors have vents so they should fizzle rather than explode.
- HeyLaughingBoy 11y agoEven small ones (47uF or so) have safety slits to release overpressure. Maybe that's a recent change, though. I don't think I have any caps older than about 20 years, so I can't verify.
- DHJSH 11y agoI've had electrolytics blow up in my hand when I was a kid and merely powered them backward. (Back when I was a kid, BTW, 14 year olds made real digital clocks from 7400 series divider chips and nixie tubes. And we never got invited to the White House.)