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Winning the inverted lottery

loy22.blogspot.com

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Re: Winning the inverted lottery

#11

Post by c1sc0 »

wallflower wrote: post #2

This is not as harrowing as the story referenced, and I have a memory of playing with a childhood friend around age 9 with an Erector set. For some reason, we decided to connect the metal parts (don't remember if there was a motor attached) to a nightlight (we moved the bulb). There was a spark and the house went dark. I quickly said goodbye to my friend's parents and learned the next day that we had managed to make…

My grandfather was an engineer and his house was full of interesting electrical appliances. One day we found this really weird-looking device that had little spools of metal wire running through it (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wire_recording). We decided to hook it up to see if we could get it to work ... a 110V machine that hadn't been used since the fifties ... to a 220V power outlet. I still feel bad about that to this day: the machine was a technical marvel & probably belonged in a museum.

Re: Winning the inverted lottery

#12

Post by tomjen3 »

wallflower wrote: post #2

This is not as harrowing as the story referenced, and I have a memory of playing with a childhood friend around age 9 with an Erector set. For some reason, we decided to connect the metal parts (don't remember if there was a motor attached) to a nightlight (we moved the bulb). There was a spark and the house went dark. I quickly said goodbye to my friend's parents and learned the next day that we had managed to make…

Children should never be allowed to play with electric connections. My thomb took an hour to stop twitching after I electrocuted it.

Re: Winning the inverted lottery

#13

Post by DaniFong »

tomjen3 wrote: post #12
wallflower wrote: post #2

This is not as harrowing as the story referenced, and I have a memory of playing with a childhood friend around age 9 with an Erector set. For some reason, we decided to connect the metal parts (don't remember if there was a motor attached) to a nightlight (we moved the bulb). There was a spark and the house went dark. I quickly said goodbye to my friend's parents and learned the next day that we had managed to make…

Children should never be allowed to play with electric connections. My thomb took an hour to stop twitching after I electrocuted it.

I suppose children should not be allowed to swim either...

Re: Winning the inverted lottery

#16

Post by Loy »

aymeric wrote: post #8
wallflower wrote: post #2

This is not as harrowing as the story referenced, and I have a memory of playing with a childhood friend around age 9 with an Erector set. For some reason, we decided to connect the metal parts (don't remember if there was a motor attached) to a nightlight (we moved the bulb). There was a spark and the house went dark. I quickly said goodbye to my friend's parents and learned the next day that we had managed to make…

He is maybe the author of the blog post :)

Indeed. It was a very pleasant surprise to get on the HN front page on a first blog post. I must be a lucky guy ;)

Re: Winning the inverted lottery

#18

Post by IgorPartola »

Confusion wrote: post #6
Eliezer wrote: post #5

I think this was just luck, actually. Let's see him do it again.

I doubt it was luck: I rather think it's a completely normal way of affairs. At the moment of discovery, the gas concentration was probably far too low for an explosion. If the house was decently ventilated, the gas concentration may never have reached a sufficient concentration for an explosion. If the house wasn't decently ventilated, someone probably would have woken up from the smell. Gas leaks have a pretty larg…

Gas explosions require quite precise conditions. A high gas concentration will also prevent an explosion by displacing oxygen. There were several cases of terrorist gas explosions a few years ago in Russia and most leaks were not discovered because they were in large apartment buildings and gas pipes were tempered with in rarely used stairwells.

Re: Winning the inverted lottery

#20

Post by almost »

Eliezer wrote: post #19
almost wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that was the point of the story. Did I miss something?

Er, I think you missed the sarcasm? Someone needs to invent a font that stands for sarcasm.

Sarcasm doesn't work that well over the internet. Especially not in short bursts like tike that.
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