Electricity is hard

[Red Squirrel]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIhk9eKOLzQ

Hahaha. I think I was like 10 when I figured that out.

 

[darkswordsman17]

I love how they don't tell anyone what they were doing wrong, especially since the second half is them going "well if they can't figure it out, is it maybe not as self-evident as it seems?"

 

[steppinthrax]

Well this guy seemed to nail it.

"The woman who said the current couldn't flow without a complete circuit was technically correct... she simply didn't know that that base of the bulb could be used as a connection. Simply a misunderstanding of the properties of the bulb as opposed to electrical current theory. This is a prime example of education vs experience in the field."

Example, I'm EPA certified (Universal I, II and III). I can sit down and rattle off from the mouth about the refrigeration cycle (superheat, subcooling etc...). But if you gave me the equipment and told me to go to work. I will probably fumble and fuck around until I figured it out.

 

[BoomerD]

Duh...most of those have a hell of an air gap in the connection...

kids...buy them books, send them to school...all they learn to do is chew their pencils.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Is it racist if my first reaction was, "haha, black guy figured it out."?

 

[Rubycon]

Duh...most of those have a hell of an air gap in the connection...

kids...buy them books, send them to school...all they learn to do is chew their pencils.

I used to hear "Kids - buy 'em books, send 'em to school and they eat the teacher.

Now it's more like replace eat with a word that means screw but rhymes with truck...

First thing I'd say seeing this is there will be a completed circuit but the lamp won't glow because it's rated at 120V!

 

[John Connor]

Good grief! I've never been to college and I constantly see how college students are dumb as all hell. I've watched like a hour an a half Into to computer science from free MIT courses. Maybe I should continue. I wouldn't mind taking some Liberty University online classes.

I think just like the late show stuff, they just played the dumb ones. I'm sure most know how to power the light bulb.

 

[John Connor]

completed circuit but the lamp won't glow because it's rated at 120V!

LOL I thought that too. The battery would make a great hand warmer though.

 

[Murloc]

I bet that if you gave them an LED with 2 poles all of them could do it.

Traditional light bulb bases are made to be screwed in a socket and so don't require to know where the poles are and if these students have never changed a light bulb then they're not even familiar with them. It's not immediately obvious that the whole screw is a pole.
Then they get a few seconds in front of a camera and they fuck up.

It means there's a lack of practice, not that they don't get the basics.

 

[John Connor]

I bet that if you gave them an LED with 2 poles all of them could do it.

It's been years since I wired up an LED, but when I did I had to use a resistor. Now I think the resistor is built in?

 

[Murloc]

It's been years since I wired up an LED, but when I did I had to use a resistor. Now I think the resistor is built in?

no I don't think so but you can make it work without if you don't exagerate with the voltage

 

[Iron Woode]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIhk9eKOLzQ

Hahaha. I think I was like 10 when I figured that out.

I was doing that when I was a little kid. I remember taking 6 D cell batteries and doing that.

Ah, the good old days.

 

[IronWing]

IIRC, we did batteries and bulbs in fourth grade and built simple motors in sixth grade.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

IIRC, we did batteries and bulbs in fourth grade and built simple motors in sixth grade.

Hmmm... sounds like you spent a lot of time in tech ed because you weren't college track.

 

[JEDIYoda]

IIRC, we did batteries and bulbs in fourth grade and built simple motors in sixth grade.

We also walked 6 miles one way barefooted in the snow......Kids these days....

 

[Red Squirrel]

Oddly I never tried to make a motor or alternator. I have a general idea of how it's done though just never built one.

LEDs are interesting, you need a resistor in most cases as LEDs will just draw as much current as they can, while a light bulb will just draw the current it needs. A small cell battery won't be able to provide enough current so that's why you don't need the resistor. I think LEDs do have a certain voltage where you can get away without the resistor though. Normally you want to under drive them anyway so they last longer. Whatever the max current says on the data sheet you don't want to actually use that. The voltage you apply will basically decide how much current it gets, so they are rated in current.

 

[Imp]

First thing I'd say seeing this is there will be a completed circuit but the lamp won't glow because it's rated at 120V!

The voltage problem was the first issue that crossed my mind -- can I series chain batteries? I moved on to the polarity of the contacts after.

And then I remembered that incandescent bulbs used to work great with dimmer switches and I think I read somewhere that incandescent bulbs are so "dumb" they don't care about polarity -- bla bla bla not electrical engineer, me no know da electrical.

IIRC, we did batteries and bulbs in fourth grade and built simple motors in sixth grade.

The more I look into the teaching profession, the more I realize that for grades 8 and under during my time in school, the teacher essentially taught what they knew or were comfortable with. I learned English grammar in grade 7, and stocks and geography in grade 5. Not sure what the fuq I learned in the other grades.

If I become a teacher, my kids are learning a lot about civil engineering, computers, history, and financial stuff.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yeah some of the bulbs they showed looked like 120v. If I was approached with the question but without seeing any equipment my answer probably would have been "it depends on the type of battery and bulb". And yeah incads are strictly resistive, they don't care about polarity or even if it's AC or DC. Though you could probably get deep into studies and experiments on if AC or DC is better as AC will slightly vibrate the filament while DC won't. On a dimmer you can even hear it because it's not a nice clean sine wave anymore. We were talking about that with stage lighting and someone told me "You'd be making a sound too if you had 1,000 watts up your butt".

 

[dave_the_nerd]

If I become a teacher, my kids are learning a lot about civil engineering, computers, history, and financial stuff.

Nope. There are well-defined curriculum standards now. Teachers have some time to share their passions, but mostly you're working off of a calendar, on a schedule, and coordinating with other staff who teach your grade level.

And unless you're really old, that's how they did it back then, too.

 

[Imp]

^If that was true during my time in elementary, they taught us a lot of garbage because I don't remember most of it other than the math.

For example, my grade 6 teacher phoned it in. Think he was a year or two out from retirement. My grade 8 teacher literally retired mid-year.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

^If that was true during my time in elementary, they taught us a lot of garbage because I don't remember most of it other than the math.

For example, my grade 6 teacher phoned it in. Think he was a year or two out from retirement. My grade 8 teacher literally retired mid-year.

I've found that most people either forgot most of it, or never really learned it. Or internalized it so hard-core that they don't remember learning it. (Like reading, which you are doing right now, which you probably learning in elementary school even though you just said the only thing you remember learning back then is math.)

 

[Imp]

^You sound like a teacher. Are you a dirty teacher?

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yeah if I recall there was some very well lined curriculum standards. The teachers can slightly veer away but still have to cover it. In college they are free to mostly teach how/what they want though from what I recall. I imagine there is a certain set of standard guidelines but it's probably rather broad.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

^You sound like a teacher. Are you a dirty teacher?

No but I play one on TV.

A lot of my family are teachers. So's my housemate. And I did IT support for a school district for a few years, so I had the chance to see what's going on without having my own ass on the line.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Yeah if I recall there was some very well lined curriculum standards. The teachers can slightly veer away but still have to cover it. In college they are free to mostly teach how/what they want though from what I recall. I imagine there is a certain set of standard guidelines but it's probably rather broad.

Accreditation standards are about it for standards/guidelines. Although those can be pretty important.