6 ms·

When I was around 5-6 I wanted to know what would happen if I put a hairpin into a light socket. It seemed a reasonable experiment beforehand; after I picked my

When I was around 5-6 I wanted to know what would happen if I put a hairpin into a light socket. It seemed a reasonable experiment beforehand; after I picked myself up after flying across the room I learned a valuable lesson. Around the same time I tested whether Santa existed by putting out food; when no one ate it I assumed Santa was fake. Children are not very experienced at knowledge and thinking and often do things that confound adults. Giving them access to something they do not yet have the ability to understand or discern can be both useful (learning) and dangerous and it's up to parents and other adults to make sure it's not going to kill them, yet at the same time not completely stifle learning. I could say I eventually became a programmer because I nearly fried myself doing a test...

hiptobecubic 5y ago
Your primary job is a parent is to make sure your kids don't die. The rest is kind of a wash. FWIW, I blew up a power outlet with a paperclip when I was 17. You don't have to be a small child to be dangerously ignorant.
tsomctl 5y ago
I stuck a table knife into the outlet when I was little. I only did it because everyone kept telling me not to. I have this memory of it jumping out at me, I'm genuinely curious if I actually touched the hot side or it's just my imagination.
- Cerium 5y ago
  I accidentally inserted a screw driver into a switch without a cover plate, making contact between the hot and the grounding frame on the switch. I still have that screwdriver somewhere, about half the tip was melted. I don't remember getting shocked, but it blew the fuse on the circuit and scared the hell out of me.
gruez 5y ago
>Around the same time I tested whether Santa existed by putting out food; when no one ate it I assumed Santa was fake. That doesn't seem like sound logic to me. Maybe he's just too busy to eat food that was put out at every house? You'd get pretty full by eating a cookie from every house in your neighborhood.
- Jeff_Brown 5y ago
  Easier to just inspect the chimney dust. I wonder how many children have tried to poison Santa.
- mayoff 5y ago
  The 6-year-old in the story was presumably led to believe that Santa can visit every house in the world in one night. Logically, normal human limitations (like a finite capacity to eat cookies) do not apply to Santa.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- kzrdude 5y ago
  It's logical to test the model that was presented to him by the adults.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
Jeff_Brown 5y ago
You literally flew across the room? I've been shocked a fair number of times -- the worst was when as an 11 year old I felt around in a bare light socket with my finger in Kenya, where they use 240 V -- and don't recall ever feeling pushed in any particular direction. Indeed, that Kenya experience was terrifying precisely because I was paralyzed. I made an involuntary "aaauugh" sound and shook until the lamp fell over, which was fortunately pretty fast.
- nsxwolf 5y ago
  I’ve “flown across the room” from touching a fly back transformer in a CRT. I think what really happened was I backed up trying to get away, and fell over backwards.
  - throwanem 5y ago
    Now you know why they call it a flyback transformer.
  - ComputerGuru 5y ago
    See, that's believable. I came close to that as a kid by discharging the capacitors in an old-school shoe-mount camera flash. But you don't fly back from 120VAC or even 220VAC socket. My first time as a child was accidentally electrocuting myself trying to replace the flood light on the porch and it either had an obscenely oversized bulb-screw or I was trying to remove a broken bulb screw from the socket (details are hazy). I just felt my heart suddenly racing and my body throbbing/pulsing until I managed to yank my hands away.
- ericbarrett 5y ago
  > I made an involuntary "aaauugh" sound I was shocked with 300V DC and the main thing I remember (more than the sensation itself) was emitting a high-pitched ululation that I'm in no way capable of deliberately recreating. It was foreign and alien coming from my own throat; by far the most terrifying part of the experience. But I was sitting on a stool and didn't fall off.
- stronglikedan 5y ago
wazoox 5y ago
I remember doing it with some rolled aluminium foil; but I knew that electricity could be dangerous, so I put a piece of scotch tape around the middle part by which I was holding it. So there was a nice flash and the power went off, but I felt nothing :)
cecilpl2 5y ago
Around that same age I also tested whether Santa was in fact secretly my parents. I decided that Mall Santa would be the only person I told that I really wanted an RC car for Christmas, and I steadfastly refused my parents' attempts to get me to tell them what I'd asked for. Lo and behold, Santa got me the RC car I so desperately wanted, solidifying my belief in him for a couple more years. Turns out the real lesson, which I was too young to grasp, is that at the RC car display at Costco a 6-year-old cannot contain his obvious excitement in order to run a properly blinded experiment.
- pkrotich 5y ago
  I initially thought the mall Santa snitched. Last Christmas I got my partner a gift I happened to come across while searching for gift ideas - turned out it’s exactly what she wanted! I was confused - but it turned out I got shown the product (ad) because she had looked at it previously - lesson is shared Wi-Fi can snitch on you!
  - CoastalCoder 5y ago
    Or she's really good at faking it so you don't feel bad :)
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - n4bz0r 5y ago
      Or really good at understanding how ad targeting works!
dudleypippin 5y ago
My daughter checked the existence of the tooth fairy by not telling us when she lost a tooth and putting it under her pillow. The pride on her face when she informed of of the results of her experiment the next morning made my heart sing.
- ianhawes 5y ago
  This seems to be the most common method by which children determine that fantasy characters are in fact fantasy.
- maximus-decimus 5y ago
  Was your answer "I expect a full scientitic report by tomorrow."? Hypothesis : Parents are fat liars" Methodology : Put teeth under pillow without telling parents. Result : Where's my money? Analysis : The results show that the tooth fairy is fake and my parents are liars." Conclusion : The current results tend to show that parents are liars, but we need more experiments to know the extent. To expend on the results, I should also be as evil as possible for the incoming year and verify if Santa Claus indeed does give me coal.
  - jonhohle 5y ago
    I never had Santa or the tooth fairy growing up, and neither do my children for the same reason. Why deceive children with something so obviously fake and not let them enjoy the story along with you? We still talk about the tooth fairy, but there’s never been a question that it’s mom or dad (which stinks when we screw up and forget).
    - maximus-decimus 5y ago
      For my parents, it's the social pressure caused by the fact you don't want all the other parents to be pissed at you for spoiling it for everyone.
    - torbTurret 5y ago
      It seems exactly like you’re NOT letting them enjoy the story, just because you didn’t. This seems like an easy way to rob their childhood of fun memories, interest (watch how much more they care about Christmas movies when they think it’s real),curb creativity, and produce a child who’s overly skeptical. Kid will also probably ruin Christmas for other children/parents, garnering a reputation as a know-it-all and possibly alienating themselves socially.
corobo 5y ago
I'm glad I had this idea when I was into model railways as a kid Shorting the rails did spark a bit (cool, obviously) but no muscle clamping or throwing of children! I didn't learn from it though I guess, many years later I lightly burned a toe touching it to my PC's motherboard.. really weird feeling when your muscle does something faster and more violently than you could ever make it do on purpose! Don't work on a computer on the floor with the case off without footwear! Impressively the computer didn't suffer any ill effect, once I'd got the power back on it booted up fine I've also given myself a dead arm trying to unscrew a fridge lightbulb.. that someone had already removed allowing my finger to pop in and complete the circuit for a moment. Whoops Earlier in life (after model railway, before kicking motherboards) I got a school detention for joining (starting?) a wave of kids charging capacitors and throwing them to each other with a "think fast!". All fun and games till someone throws one to the teacher I don't play with electricity much anymore, my tinkering is limited to battery powered things or less
abdullahkhalids 5y ago
I was an ambitious optimist. I had extracted the motor out of my toy at age 5-6, and had learned to run it on batteries with some wire. Understood that one 1.5V battery made it go slow, and two made it fast. And the 9V even faster. Obviously, the wall socket would make it go even faster. Well, besides the shock, I discovered that wire basically melts with large doses of electricity.
morpheuskafka 5y ago
When I was ten or so I tried shorting out a 20V barrel jack charger with a paperclip. It was not from lack of knowledge, though--I was quite familiar with Ohm's Law and just trusted that there would probably be some current limiting circuitry in there that would prevent anything too serious from happening. I guess I didn't think about the possibility of the charger being destroyed in the process at that age--it actually wasn't, but produced a nice burning smell and shower of sparks from the plug!

hiptobecubic 5y ago

Your primary job is a parent is to make sure your kids don't die. The rest is kind of a wash. FWIW, I blew up a power outlet with a paperclip when I was 17. You don't have to be a small child to be dangerously ignorant.

tsomctl 5y ago

I stuck a table knife into the outlet when I was little. I only did it because everyone kept telling me not to. I have this memory of it jumping out at me, I'm genuinely curious if I actually touched the hot side or it's just my imagination.

Cerium 5y ago
I accidentally inserted a screw driver into a switch without a cover plate, making contact between the hot and the grounding frame on the switch. I still have that screwdriver somewhere, about half the tip was melted. I don't remember getting shocked, but it blew the fuse on the circuit and scared the hell out of me.

gruez 5y ago

>Around the same time I tested whether Santa existed by putting out food; when no one ate it I assumed Santa was fake. That doesn't seem like sound logic to me. Maybe he's just too busy to eat food that was put out at every house? You'd get pretty full by eating a cookie from every house in your neighborhood.

Jeff_Brown 5y ago
Easier to just inspect the chimney dust. I wonder how many children have tried to poison Santa.
mayoff 5y ago
The 6-year-old in the story was presumably led to believe that Santa can visit every house in the world in one night. Logically, normal human limitations (like a finite capacity to eat cookies) do not apply to Santa.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
kzrdude 5y ago
It's logical to test the model that was presented to him by the adults.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

Jeff_Brown 5y ago

You literally flew across the room? I've been shocked a fair number of times -- the worst was when as an 11 year old I felt around in a bare light socket with my finger in Kenya, where they use 240 V -- and don't recall ever feeling pushed in any particular direction. Indeed, that Kenya experience was terrifying precisely because I was paralyzed. I made an involuntary "aaauugh" sound and shook until the lamp fell over, which was fortunately pretty fast.

nsxwolf 5y ago
I’ve “flown across the room” from touching a fly back transformer in a CRT. I think what really happened was I backed up trying to get away, and fell over backwards.
- throwanem 5y ago
  Now you know why they call it a flyback transformer.
- ComputerGuru 5y ago
  See, that's believable. I came close to that as a kid by discharging the capacitors in an old-school shoe-mount camera flash. But you don't fly back from 120VAC or even 220VAC socket. My first time as a child was accidentally electrocuting myself trying to replace the flood light on the porch and it either had an obscenely oversized bulb-screw or I was trying to remove a broken bulb screw from the socket (details are hazy). I just felt my heart suddenly racing and my body throbbing/pulsing until I managed to yank my hands away.
ericbarrett 5y ago
> I made an involuntary "aaauugh" sound I was shocked with 300V DC and the main thing I remember (more than the sensation itself) was emitting a high-pitched ululation that I'm in no way capable of deliberately recreating. It was foreign and alien coming from my own throat; by far the most terrifying part of the experience. But I was sitting on a stool and didn't fall off.
stronglikedan 5y ago

wazoox 5y ago

I remember doing it with some rolled aluminium foil; but I knew that electricity could be dangerous, so I put a piece of scotch tape around the middle part by which I was holding it. So there was a nice flash and the power went off, but I felt nothing :)

cecilpl2 5y ago

Around that same age I also tested whether Santa was in fact secretly my parents. I decided that Mall Santa would be the only person I told that I really wanted an RC car for Christmas, and I steadfastly refused my parents' attempts to get me to tell them what I'd asked for. Lo and behold, Santa got me the RC car I so desperately wanted, solidifying my belief in him for a couple more years. Turns out the real lesson, which I was too young to grasp, is that at the RC car display at Costco a 6-year-old cannot contain his obvious excitement in order to run a properly blinded experiment.

pkrotich 5y ago
I initially thought the mall Santa snitched. Last Christmas I got my partner a gift I happened to come across while searching for gift ideas - turned out it’s exactly what she wanted! I was confused - but it turned out I got shown the product (ad) because she had looked at it previously - lesson is shared Wi-Fi can snitch on you!
- CoastalCoder 5y ago
  Or she's really good at faking it so you don't feel bad :)
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - n4bz0r 5y ago
    Or really good at understanding how ad targeting works!

dudleypippin 5y ago

My daughter checked the existence of the tooth fairy by not telling us when she lost a tooth and putting it under her pillow. The pride on her face when she informed of of the results of her experiment the next morning made my heart sing.

ianhawes 5y ago
This seems to be the most common method by which children determine that fantasy characters are in fact fantasy.
maximus-decimus 5y ago
Was your answer "I expect a full scientitic report by tomorrow."? Hypothesis : Parents are fat liars" Methodology : Put teeth under pillow without telling parents. Result : Where's my money? Analysis : The results show that the tooth fairy is fake and my parents are liars." Conclusion : The current results tend to show that parents are liars, but we need more experiments to know the extent. To expend on the results, I should also be as evil as possible for the incoming year and verify if Santa Claus indeed does give me coal.
- jonhohle 5y ago
  I never had Santa or the tooth fairy growing up, and neither do my children for the same reason. Why deceive children with something so obviously fake and not let them enjoy the story along with you? We still talk about the tooth fairy, but there’s never been a question that it’s mom or dad (which stinks when we screw up and forget).
  - maximus-decimus 5y ago
    For my parents, it's the social pressure caused by the fact you don't want all the other parents to be pissed at you for spoiling it for everyone.
  - torbTurret 5y ago
    It seems exactly like you’re NOT letting them enjoy the story, just because you didn’t. This seems like an easy way to rob their childhood of fun memories, interest (watch how much more they care about Christmas movies when they think it’s real),curb creativity, and produce a child who’s overly skeptical. Kid will also probably ruin Christmas for other children/parents, garnering a reputation as a know-it-all and possibly alienating themselves socially.

corobo 5y ago

I'm glad I had this idea when I was into model railways as a kid Shorting the rails did spark a bit (cool, obviously) but no muscle clamping or throwing of children! I didn't learn from it though I guess, many years later I lightly burned a toe touching it to my PC's motherboard.. really weird feeling when your muscle does something faster and more violently than you could ever make it do on purpose! Don't work on a computer on the floor with the case off without footwear! Impressively the computer didn't suffer any ill effect, once I'd got the power back on it booted up fine I've also given myself a dead arm trying to unscrew a fridge lightbulb.. that someone had already removed allowing my finger to pop in and complete the circuit for a moment. Whoops Earlier in life (after model railway, before kicking motherboards) I got a school detention for joining (starting?) a wave of kids charging capacitors and throwing them to each other with a "think fast!". All fun and games till someone throws one to the teacher I don't play with electricity much anymore, my tinkering is limited to battery powered things or less

abdullahkhalids 5y ago

I was an ambitious optimist. I had extracted the motor out of my toy at age 5-6, and had learned to run it on batteries with some wire. Understood that one 1.5V battery made it go slow, and two made it fast. And the 9V even faster. Obviously, the wall socket would make it go even faster. Well, besides the shock, I discovered that wire basically melts with large doses of electricity.

morpheuskafka 5y ago

When I was ten or so I tried shorting out a 20V barrel jack charger with a paperclip. It was not from lack of knowledge, though--I was quite familiar with Ohm's Law and just trusted that there would probably be some current limiting circuitry in there that would prevent anything too serious from happening. I guess I didn't think about the possibility of the charger being destroyed in the process at that age--it actually wasn't, but produced a nice burning smell and shower of sparks from the plug!