ms63129's channel

@Namatok The ice isn't needed either, it just cools the air in the bottle down faster. Nor do you have to boil the water; I have filled plastic bottles with hot water before and found that they collapsed after cooling if partly filled (with an airtight lid).

@truebassB

For vintage, I think of something that has no ICs (chips) or only a few simple ICs, such as this VCR made in the late 1970s I found a while ago, which must of had a couple thousand parts in it (several hundred transistors alone) and only some simple CMOS logic ICs and op amps (the con...

@K31TH3R One problem with that is that most PC power supplies have a rather limited current capability on the -12 volt output, less than what many fans and motors draw on normal voltage (they could supply more, but generally a cheap 7912 linear regulator with current limiting is used). What I do ...

@JamesR1978 People treat everything as disposable nowadays; if you see a computer by the curb, chances are that it still works. Myself, I still use a CRT monitor from 2002 because it still works (CRT TVs and monitors are common examples of "still works but thrown out anyway" devices), I only repl...

I half expected to see a computer actually set on fire, like this: PNRuzGMGhHY

Oh, viruses on PCs? I have never gotten a virus in 10 years of having one; a few anti-virus warnings but nothing serious (that is why you have AV; common sense helps too, like those fake AV popups). Not that I think P...

@AintBigAintClever The latter; for example, there are just enough primary turns to prevent serious saturation, and since microwaves have a fan in them it doesn't really matter if they run somewhat hotter. There is also some current flow in all transformers due to magnetizing current, but this doe...

@RODALCO2007 They usually have around 2-3 milligrams, some as low as 1 mg, mostly in gaseous form (for perspective, some high-mercury fish species can have more than 1 ppm of mercury - or more mercury in 1 kg than a low-mercury CFL). Mercury also gets absorbed into the phosphor and glass over tim...

Of course, in microwaves, I don't save the MOT as-is; I remove the enameled wire (secondary) for my own uses and remove the electronics (some hate inverter microwaves but I love them for the parts, including the high frequency transformer core/SMPS stuff, although I have found only one so far).

@mysteak1 That's completely false. If anything, normal cooking destroys more nutrients because of the longer cooking time and higher temperature (which can also form carcinogens). Nor do microwaves cause cancer or any of the other things conspiracists believe in (they only cook because of the pow...

Hmmm... I can make a power supply that is WAY better than that, with no important parts omitted or excessive noise and much more efficient (I'm sure that diode got really hot); I have made dozens of switching power supplies ranging from several to several hundred watts for personal projects (all ...

@Kurtreidable Not really, hard drives can store just 1 bit of data per magnetic domain; you'd need at least 27 bits (magnetic domains) to store an 8 digit number, as this calculator displays (2^27 = ~134,000,000; add another bit for the sign plus more for decimal numbers).

Of course, nothing is ...

@MLKingXII "Scientific research"??? Really? From whom? And I mean actual scientific research; Google "USGS CO2" and click the USGS volcano/climate link (they show 260 million tons as the highest estimate for volcanic CO2); even Pinatubo produced only 50 MT of CO2, about half a days worth of human...

@joblessalex Never? At least not from doing things like this - people always way overplay the dangers of chemicals; as far as I know, potassium nitrate is only hazardous (forming nitrosamines, which are carcinogenic) when used to cure meat, though sodium nitrate (or nitrite, same risks) is more c...

I don't use PCBs, but they aren't always practical; the circuits that I make are mostly so large and complex that I design them by section and wire them together on a perfboard (no copper, just holes, using leads and wires for connections). Of course, if the circuit is already designed, then it w...

I have to say that, as a serious electronic hobbyist, I think that many of the safety warnings are silly, not that I disregard all safety warnings, but then I don't play with MOTs, aside from a couple times (I prefer to build things, not blow them up, unless they are really useless). Not that I h...

For an experiment like this, you can also use brighter LEDs for more brightness; I have had LEDs that light up pretty well with well under 1 mA of current, also a good trick if you use an LED in a battery powered circuit; no use wasting 10-20 mA for a "on" indicator, I recently used such an LED a...

The bulb would explode if it were sealed up so the pressure of vapors from boiling gasoline caused it to burst, assuming the filament didn't burn out first (you could also try salt water, which doesn't need an intact filament, personal experience; no, I haven't tried gas but gas and salt water mi...

@1337BananaL33TVostok

There are no "hazardous gasses" inside of a TV, since there is no gas in a vacuum by definition. At least, I have done this before (and a whole lot of other stuff) and at the most the phosphor made me sneeze, no other ill effects. The leaded glass is probably more toxic (an...

3,500 calories is probably more like what one would eat for the entire meal (or even day), and that would be about 1,500 excess calories, so you'd have to walk only about 15 miles (2 weeks) to burn it off. Also, I for one don't see the need to eat like a glutton and don't eat much more than I nor...

@BionicleChronicleTV

That is exactly what I think when I see PETA too.

Now, of course, I would rather eat meat that was ethically raised (e.g. cows allowed free run in a pasture, not cooped up and force-fed corn, which is bad in other ways as well).

@Laxpowertoo

It's sulfuric acid (H2SO4), which isn't the same as hydrogen sulfide (H2S), nor is it flammable (hydrogen gas however is, and that is produced by electrolysis in an overcharged battery).

Also, sulfuric acid isn't considered toxic other than being corrosive, so inhaling small amount...

@TheDJGabizz

If it has a CCFL for a backlight, LCD monitors do have thousands of volts (at a few mA), although the AC power is probably more dangerous, especially after the circuitry gets smashed, plus it is only present at the inverter output (which isn't actually that bad, having touched it bef...