home_____ music______ projects_______ links___________ ____friends ____causes ____amusements ________my amusements ____________art ____________barcode ____________bush ____________bush stretcher ____________electricity ____________koko ____________maze ____________pix ____________rock cam ____________wtsdba ____________buy a shirt ____useful? contact_____________		Fun with The common electrical outlet can be an entertaining thing. Here, I discuss some common household items and the results of running a current through them. These tests were performed at school, where my friends and I could conduct our research with the materials available. Should you attempt to try any of these, choose a well ventilated area, know where the nearest fire extinguisher is, and for pete's sake, don't electrocute yourself. Note: I accept no responsibility for any disasters you may encounter trying to emulate our experiments. We are professionals.
			Paper Clip: I haven't actually tried this lately. As a small child, I remember poking a bent paper clip into a wall socket. From what I remember, it got quite warm, not particularly exciting.
			Power Cord: This is good stuff. My friend, Paul, hacked the cord off an old radio and stripped the ends of the wires. By touching the two wires together (obviously, it must be plugged in), you can make a small shower of sparks. It looks really cool in the dark.
			Orange: My friend, Dan, and I wanted to try the paper clip experiment again, but neither of us really wanted to use our fingers to put the paper clip into the socket. Dan had the bright idea of jabbing two clips into an orange, like a mock plug. Plugged in, the orange began to steam and hiss. It glowed a little between the clips and it smelled like burnt orange. Later, I peeled the orange and the area where the paper clips had been appeared to have turned to orange juice. Mildly entertaining.
			Pickle: This was probably the best of the organic materials. I had heard somewhere that if you run current through a gherkin, it will glow. Sure enough, using the the paper clip method, we plugged in some pickle slices and witnessed a pickle lightbulb. We have yet to try a whole pickle.
			Banana: Burning, steaming, hissing, really bad smell. The outlet stopped working after the banana experiment.
		More on the electric pickle. Microwave induced plasma ball. More microwave experiments. Not electricity, but fire. Balloons. Have a story to share about electricity? Send it this way: BenLizard@yahoo.com.