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Can you light a bulb with a battery and a wire?

I think it's just awakward to do that without a surface to place things on. it's more of a test of dexterity.
 
Wait, was there some part of that question I was missing?
Didn't they do that kind of stuff in middle school or elementary school science classes?

The only way I'd have said "no" was if they handed me a 1.5V alkaline and a bulb rated for 120V.

(In which case I'd need to build some manner of boost converter - or just buy one. 🙂 It'd suck the battery dry damn quick though, and I might need something like a NiCad that could handle the current requirements.)
 
dighn said:
I think it's just awakward to do that without a surface to place things on. it's more of a test of dexterity.
Click to expand...

If you look what they're trying though, most of them are not just fumbling to get the connection right, they're not even close to making circuits.

(Both ends of the wire touching the bottom of the battery, only one wire going to the bulb, etc.)
 
Jeff7 said:
Wait, was there some part of that question I was missing?
Didn't they do that kind of stuff in middle school or elementary school science classes?

The only way I'd have said "no" was if they handed me a 1.5V alkaline and a bulb rated for 120V.

(In which case I'd need to build some manner of boost converter - or just buy one. 🙂 It'd suck the battery dry damn quick though, and I might need something like a NiCad that could handle the current requirements.)
Click to expand...

I did this with 4th graders.
 
Wait... I'm confused. You CAN do it right? Bulb on top of battery, side of screw back to bottom of battery with the wire?
 
TuxDave said:
Wait... I'm confused. You CAN do it right? Bulb on top of battery, side of screw back to bottom of battery with the wire?
Click to expand...

rararara.png
 
wtf? That's not MIT for the most part: the person who got it RIGHT is from MIT. For the others, wrong buildings, wrong colors, wrong cap & gown, wrong "im better than you" douchebag at the podium, wrong everything.

The students who couldn't do it are from HARVARD. The architecture is characteristic of their campus. The cap & gown is theirs:
http://sswift.net/photo_album.html (ctrl-f for "harvard graduation")

Fuck the jackasses who made that video.

The person who got it right (the black kid) is probably from MIT. The clothing is correct & the building in the background is our Green Building:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f4/MIT-Green-Building.jpg

Also the whole premise of this is stupid. Without knowing whether the students were required to take an E&M course or some sort of basic EE class, why would you expect them to have any clue about what a circuit is? (Because it was clear from the video that several of them were not electrical engineers... and since they were from Harvard, none of them were any kind of engineer!)

I mean I'm sure I could find plenty of graduates who don't how a wing generates lift. I'd bet that most would say something along the lines of "air travels farther/faster over the top surface" + Bernoulli's Eqn... which is completely wrong. Or graduates who couldn't tell you what chemical reaction produces salt. Or graduates who don't can't answer questions about simple genetics. Basically, grads of field X who don't know basic concepts from field Y. Big fucking surprise.
 
eLiu said:
I mean I'm sure I could find plenty of graduates who don't how a wing generates lift. I'd bet that most would say something along the lines of "air travels farther/faster over the top surface" + Bernoulli's Eqn... which is completely wrong. Or graduates who couldn't tell you what chemical reaction produces salt. Or graduates who don't can't answer questions about simple genetics. Basically, grads of field X who don't know basic concepts from field Y. Big fucking surprise.
Click to expand...

Heh, ok I guess I'm one of them that's wrong about how a wing generates lift. I need to go back to whoever told me the wrong answer and punish them.

HCl + NaOH = NaCl + H2O?
 
TuxDave said:
Heh, ok I guess I'm one of them that's wrong about how a wing generates lift. I need to go back to whoever told me the wrong answer and punish them.
Click to expand...

Bernoulli is the commonly taught principle for lift.

It has more to do with Newtons 3rd law, and how the wing/air act against each other.

Of course, I should probably know that
 
eLiu said:
wtf? That's not MIT for the most part: the person who got it RIGHT is from MIT. For the others, wrong buildings, wrong colors, wrong cap & gown, wrong "im better than you" douchebag at the podium, wrong everything.

The students who couldn't do it are from HARVARD. The architecture is characteristic of their campus. The cap & gown is theirs:
http://sswift.net/photo_album.html (ctrl-f for "harvard graduation")

Fuck the jackasses who made that video.

The person who got it right (the black kid) is probably from MIT. The clothing is correct & the building in the background is our Green Building:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f4/MIT-Green-Building.jpg

Also the whole premise of this is stupid. Without knowing whether the students were required to take an E&M course or some sort of basic EE class, why would you expect them to have any clue about what a circuit is? (Because it was clear from the video that several of them were not electrical engineers... and since they were from Harvard, none of them were any kind of engineer!)

I mean I'm sure I could find plenty of graduates who don't how a wing generates lift. I'd bet that most would say something along the lines of "air travels farther/faster over the top surface" + Bernoulli's Eqn... which is completely wrong. Or graduates who couldn't tell you what chemical reaction produces salt. Or graduates who don't can't answer questions about simple genetics. Basically, grads of field X who don't know basic concepts from field Y. Big fucking surprise.
Click to expand...
Everyone with an engineering degree takes higher level physics class that contains a section on circuits. However, only the most basic chemistry class is required. As for the wing question, that's a bit trickier because it isn't as well understood and isn't covered in low level, non-specific courses. It is also subject to conditions (bernoullii effect DOES come into play at slower speeds) and there are many sources of incorrect knowledge on it. Just google "myth wing lift". There is no such issue with chemistry of salts and series electrical circuits.
 
dighn said:
I think it's just awakward to do that without a surface to place things on. it's more of a test of dexterity.
Click to expand...

plus asking 'just graduates' which may have had a big night prior...

Being MIT grads, I am sure (at least hope) they'd figure this out if given time. Most of our grads in the last 10 years or so...I am not sure.

I went back to college in 2000 (I am almost 40). The amount of cheating was insane...in many of my classes I talked to the professor about doing it a different way because of what I just stumbled on hearing things.

One of my best was doing a CPU simulation in ASP/VBScipt instead of C++.

It's sad that college has become just an extension of high school. We should never have allowed that. Most really have no place going beyond high school.
 
Stupid video.
1. Most of them looked like they where trying to do it correctly, it just that they were not able to maneuver with two hands and no table.
2. WTF was mister professor at the end getting at "If one cannot light a lightbulb with a battery and wire, then everything built on those principles has a problem." Um, no, It just means that they only have 2 hands to work with a tiny lightbulb with small terminals.

Only the lady that was talking about current was a disappointment.
 
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