Hot, Hot, Hot!

[billroper]

I heard beeping that sounded like a malfunctioning smoke alarm. (It wasn't, but more on that later.) I asked daisy_knotwise to grab a 9V battery so I could replace the likely offender, but when I couldn't figure out which smoke alarm was complaining, I ended up dropping the battery in my shirt pocket and forgetting about it.

Until about ten minutes later, when I noticed that something was really hot in my shirt pocket. What the?!

I grabbed the very, very hot battery out of my pocket. I carry my wedding ring there and it had shorted across the battery terminals. The ring was nice and toasty warm too.

Apparently, gold is a pretty good conductor...

Comments

[purpleranger.livejournal.com]

And what did we learn from this? :)

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Gold is an excellent conductor. The only reason we mostly use copper instead is price.

[kevinnickerson.livejournal.com]

Apparently, gold is a pretty good conductor...

Don't let Monster Cable hear about this. Oh wait...

[dbcooper.livejournal.com]

It's pocket science! :)

[rono-60103.livejournal.com]

Once when I was working with the Tech Crew at Wheaton Bible Church I was changing the batteries in the wireless mics. For some reason I dropped one of the 9volts into my pants pocket with my keys.

A few minutes later I discovered that the battery wasn't all that dead in much the same way you describe. So even the brass (or whatever) they make keys out of is a good enough conductor to short a 9volt.

[whl.livejournal.com]

My old mustang (not one of the ones people collect, later) had a depression under the hand brake handle that I used for change (it was a manual transmission, and this was long before iPass, so digging for toll change while managing the car was a bit much).

I put some dead AAs in there once, and it managed a fortuitous bridge amongst the pennies. Suddenly, I smelled smoke.

[tarkrai.livejournal.com]

You know, if you call the Inventor Hotline, you might be able to earn a few bux from this discovery... ;) I wonder how well it carries audio signal?