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Small Change, and Other Physics Fun

Posted by michael on from the physics-is-phun dept.

fishy jew writes "Ever want an easy way to make your 'small change' even smaller? Well, Bert Hickman has it - mix a home-brewed machine, 6.5 kiloJoules, and 100,000 Amps of current! On his website, he has descriptions and pictures of his many exploits with large quantities of electricity, notably including shrinking coins, building a Tesla coil, creating Lichtenberg figures (chaotic sculpture), and more! He has extensively outlined the equipment, procedure, and results for each of his experiments, and included many pretty pictures, too. Here are Google caches for when the site gets /.'ed: Main Page, Shrinking Coins, Tesla Coil, and Lichtenberg Figures."

8 of 310 comments (clear)

  1. Google Cache? by ResQuad · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Doesnt do anything, because it doesnt cache the pictures. And thats the largest problems of slashdoting. I think slashdot should try to temp mirror the pages for the first few hours it goes up, if its a small site.

    --
    snowulf.com
    1. Re:Google Cache? by La+Camiseta · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This is exactly the reason that I think that Slashdot should put up some Freenet mirrors. At least then, when there's a big rush of requests, the little site's servers wouldn't get the big hits, and the bandwidth would distribute itself out like BitTorrent.

    2. Re:Google Cache? by foo1752 · · Score: 1, Insightful
      I think that Slashdot should put up some Freenet mirrors

      Yes, that's a fantasic idea. Then, it would take me all weekend to finally have those pictures of shrunken coins appear in my browser. Thank God for Freenet!

  2. Hmm.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I wonder how much I'd have to pay for an ad cleverly disguised as a slashdot main story.

  3. Not a record, but... by pla · · Score: 4, Insightful

    No posts yet, but already slashdotted.

    Actually, though, I have seen his page before. really cool toys, but strikes me as something most of us would probably not want to play with.

    Worry about the health risks of frequent cell phone use? Doesn't even come close to the RF this sucker puts off. Not to mention ozone and the very real risk of simple death from electrocution...

  4. Re:ya know... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful
    also, any time we'd point the tesla coil towards his neighbors house, they'd lose TV reception.

    Bull. Tesla coils aren't that directional. Stop making stuff up and fix your fucking shift key.

  5. Re:High Voltage Diamond Making Machine...? by deimtee · · Score: 2, Insightful

    No you wouldn't get a diamond.
    The force is directed radially inwards along a cylinder.

    To make diamonds you would need a spherically uniform force.(And probably a lot more megapascals.)

    However you would probably get a really neat pancil!

    -deimtee

    --
    I'm guessing that wasn't on their radar screen...
  6. Re:Shrinking bandwidth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "Slashdotted" ... we've acted over the past few years as if it is (1) funny (2) a fact of life (3) some sort of reward

    In fact it is none of the above.

    OK /., get off your/our collective arses and fix this. If /. doesn't get /.'ed, then why should articles directly referred to?

    Ok, mod this down. It is not essential to the topic in question. It is essential to those who create valuable content. Up till now, /. punishes them as much as it recognises them.

    All it takes is a little magic (SMOP) to make all links refer to a /. cache, and some poor little content creator in Singapore or Cincinatti won't be destroyed. Get on with it!

    Patrick Keogh
    (yes I have an account, but I can't bother, patrick@keogh.net.au)