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#1426806 12-Nov-2015 11:35

SepticSceptic:
andrew027:
freitasm: Nope, not a myth: "Scientists prove you can bounce a battery to test..."

Wow, thanks for that. So it does work, but only for alkaline batteries. Still, who'd'a thunk it?

Yes, it does work - didn't believe it myself, but flat alkalines give multiple little bounces then fall over. Good ones bounce with a more thunky sound, and generally stay upright. Drop from a couple of inches, flat side down.

Also double checked with multimeter, on amps. Good generic AA's are about 3-4A short circuit current, flat-ish ones are 1A or less, though the readings depend on the multimeter. I have seen 50% variation between multimeters on the same new batteries.

Either way I suspect there is something fundamentally wrong about attempting to determine short circuit current like this. To begin, multimeters use a shunt resistance (and this will vary) so it is not a short circuit you are measuring anyway.

tchart

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#1426813 12-Nov-2015 11:45

mdooher: Test a 9V battery by placing the terminals on your tongue.
With a little experience you can easily tell how charged or not it is.

Actually I was really surprised that some people were unaware of this one.

PS Try touching your two front teeth with it... I've only done that once

Glad Im not the only one who does this. My kids think Im nuts.

ubergeeknz

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Vocus

#1426815 12-Nov-2015 11:47

tchart:
mdooher: Test a 9V battery by placing the terminals on your tongue.
With a little experience you can easily tell how charged or not it is.

Actually I was really surprised that some people were unaware of this one.

PS Try touching your two front teeth with it... I've only done that once

Glad Im not the only one who does this. My kids think Im nuts.

You can check 1.5v batteries too. Wet a finger with spit, put battery between tongue and moistened finger.

Hot tip: do NOT try this with a car battery

SepticSceptic

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#1426983 12-Nov-2015 15:15

gzt:
SepticSceptic:
andrew027:
freitasm: Nope, not a myth: "Scientists prove you can bounce a battery to test..."

Wow, thanks for that. So it does work, but only for alkaline batteries. Still, who'd'a thunk it?

Yes, it does work - didn't believe it myself, but flat alkalines give multiple little bounces then fall over. Good ones bounce with a more thunky sound, and generally stay upright. Drop from a couple of inches, flat side down.

Also double checked with multimeter, on amps. Good generic AA's are about 3-4A short circuit current, flat-ish ones are 1A or less, though the readings depend on the multimeter. I have seen 50% variation between multimeters on the same new batteries.

Either way I suspect there is something fundamentally wrong about attempting to determine short circuit current like this. To begin, multimeters use a shunt resistance (and this will vary) so it is not a short circuit you are measuring anyway.

Using the 10A range is better than using the volts to determine battery condition.

networkn

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#1427004 12-Nov-2015 16:04

You people are insane. Battery checkers are like $6.

Why would you put something containing acid near any part of your body that has soft tissue.

JWR

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#1427167 12-Nov-2015 20:54

Geektastic: Save heaps of time wasted on the gardening by employing someone else to do it. This is 100% effective every time.

+ for total disregard for any sort of hacking!

JWR

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#1427183 12-Nov-2015 21:07

Jeeves:
mdooher:
Behodar: That reminds me of a tip for when you're in an unfamiliar car and need fuel. Most cars have a little arrow next to the "fuel" icon, pointing to which side the tank is on.

or if you run completely out of petrol and you are truly desperate. Pour in a litre or so of water. The water will sink to the bottom of the tank and bring the fuel level up to the outlet pipe.

Yes you will need to get the tank drained, and no don't do this with a diesel, if you get water into the rest of the fuel system you might go broke.

Personally I would ring the AA and save this hack for the zombie apocalypse.

This is terrible, terrible advice.

Yep... worst advice.

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JWR

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Ultimate Geek

#1427217 12-Nov-2015 21:34

My best advice is not to throw out food because it is past best by/use by dates.

Those dates are just guesses and commercially motivated as well i.e. throw out more/buy more.

A few days over the 'best by' date mean nothing.

Be a bit more careful over meat.

Just smell it if in doubt! You will soon know if it is bad. Millions of years of human evolution have trained you for this.

Finally..

Cooking is one the greatest things ever. It kills bacteria, extracts more nutrients tastes good!

Geektastic

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#1427218 12-Nov-2015 21:35

JWR:
Geektastic: Save heaps of time wasted on the gardening by employing someone else to do it. This is 100% effective every time.

+ for total disregard for any sort of hacking!

As my late father would have said: "No point in having a dog and barking yourself!"

richms

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#1427244 12-Nov-2015 21:44

JWR:
Just smell it if in doubt! You will soon know if it is bad. Millions of years of human evolution have trained you for this.

Not with some of the processing that places do with the meat when they package them. Can look fine on the outside but underneath its smelly gross crap. Cheap supermarket meat IMO has a 1 day best before. They have used all the time up on pre-packaging and shipping it. Plus you dont know if what you are buying is something that has sat in a trolly for half an hour and then been put back in the cooler because someone thought they would buy it and then found they had no money for it. I have seen that first hand so really do no trust meat from the help yourselves chillers. At least with milk you are usually safe if you go to the back of it.

Richard rich.ms

JWR

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#1427256 12-Nov-2015 22:01

Geektastic:
JWR:
Geektastic: Save heaps of time wasted on the gardening by employing someone else to do it. This is 100% effective every time.

+ for total disregard for any sort of hacking!

As my late father would have said: "No point in having a dog and barking yourself!"

Why would you want to bark in the first place? :)

JWR

821 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1427261 12-Nov-2015 22:11

richms:
JWR:
Just smell it if in doubt! You will soon know if it is bad. Millions of years of human evolution have trained you for this.

Not with some of the processing that places do with the meat when they package them. Can look fine on the outside but underneath its smelly gross crap. Cheap supermarket meat IMO has a 1 day best before. They have used all the time up on pre-packaging and shipping it. Plus you dont know if what you are buying is something that has sat in a trolly for half an hour and then been put back in the cooler because someone thought they would buy it and then found they had no money for it. I have seen that first hand so really do no trust meat from the help yourselves chillers. At least with milk you are usually safe if you go to the back of it.

Like I said - just smell the meat!

I know I will regret saying that.. but anyway.

As far as milk goes.. i doubt you have any idea of that.

Have you ever been in a milking shed?

Cow crap everywhere, mastitis cows with pus, blood. A high bacteria environment!

It is all diluted when it is mixed and then pasteurized.

But, you would have to be crazy to drink raw milk imo.

mdf

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#1427284 12-Nov-2015 23:04

I put an towel on office chairs. Doubles the life of your suit pants, as its much less abrasive than the very heavy duty canvas on most.

It does look as though you've had an accident, but I brazen that out.

JWR

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#1427286 12-Nov-2015 23:07

mdf: I put an towel on office chairs. Doubles the life of your suit pants, as its much less abrasive than the very heavy duty canvas on most.

It does look as though you've had an accident, but I brazen that out.

I give that a +

No idea if it works or not.

But, I like that you don't care what others think!:)

networkn

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#1427416 13-Nov-2015 10:27

But, you would have to be crazy to drink raw milk imo.

Drank raw milk every day on the farm for the first 12 years of my life, never got sick related to that as far as I recall.

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