It may have been this very episode that encouraged me to become an electrical engineer. Much of what I have become and many of the things I have created are the result of this and other wonderful educational programming from the 70s and 80s in Australia. I loved the Curiosity Show when I was a kid, there is unfortunately no real equivalent available now days. I am very pleased to see the show available online for future generations!
Holy smokes. Conductors, insulators, resistance and flow of electrons. Explained brilliantly and practically. This is actually a masterclass in presenting information.
I remember watching this as a kid. It gave me my first understanding of how a torch works. I made my own circuit soon after I managed to get ahold of a light bulb. Thanks guys.
I totally loved this show as a kid. I remember learning how to make a torch using a battery, a rubber band, a light bulb and a piece of aluminium foil. I made it so many times thinking it was so awesome. Thank you so much for starting this channel.
you're so right. they should've at least mention how this also imposes some safety issue, lol. not wanna take the fun out of experimenting, but that's nothing wrong of rising at least the awareness.
Wow filmed in Adelaide, my home town 🤩 an even bigger appreciation for the show I grew up on. You guys are pretty much why I do what I do today and I realise lots of my videos have many ground root similarities and now I know why 😂.
Its 2022 and the knob on the wall has become the many knobs on my phone for all the rooms.... So glad these two are alive and well to see how far we have come.
same principle in the trigger controller of a slot car set.. thin wire rapped around a mica strip, the spring-loaded trigger slides a steel bar forward and back.. simple and reliable.
Beautiful demonstration. Ahh.. reliving my childhood. Finish school, get home, glass of Milo, couple of Tim Tams, kick back in front of The Curiosity Show.
Thorough and marvelously done! As you were separating the metals from the list of things that may be conductive, I said to myself: "if he only had a piece of carbon to test...". And you did! Bonus points for not confusing viewers with "conventional" electron flow.
As an American, I always find the way different English-speaking regions pronounce different words & syllables. For instance, how he pronounces “Aluminum”. To ME, he even put the emphasis on a completely different syllable than I would.
@@SquirrelASMR Yeah…see? There ya _GO._ Lol!! Just like _THAT!_ Good _work_ there! And thank you, for adding that in. I commence you & tip my hat in your direction! It’s just so _INTERESTING,_ to me. Ya know? Growing up in the Appalachian Mountain Plateaus (what they apparently call it now. We called it Foothills most of my life), of Northeast Kentucky - on the shared border of Ohio & West Virginia, creating a Tri-State area; & straight north of the western tip of Virginia), in the 80s & 90s. At that time, smaller places like _that_ seemed like older times, when ya don’t see much else of the world. We still took vacations & trips. But, we were also _not_ a “wealthy” family. So, you didn’t hear too many foreign accents nor very much. Most we ever did, at _HOME_ (which is 98% _WHITE,_ & I married one of the few black women, in m ya he group there. Lol!! So, we left & came to SW Florida on the Gulf Coast straight south of Tampa…) was when the Brazilian, German, & Scottish foreign exchange students came in every year. _THAT_ was pretty cool. But, that’s all we got. Had a couple Canadians. Even not many from other parts of the States _itself!_ Lol! We had one girl transferred from Minnesota, & she had a *THICK* accent, to start. Lol!! Cincy has a very unique accent, that I picked up in college. Lol! So, anyway….all these different places speaking the SAME language. But, they have enough differences that there should be 4 Sub-Languages. British English, American English (which Canadians speak), Australian English (which New Zealand speaks), & South African English. Lol! Had a couple Aussie friends, in college. That was cool. But, modern internet has come SO far! Like, even just since I graduated College at & from Marshall University back in 2007..it has evolved & morphed _TREMENDOUSLY._ So, it’s opened up the opportunity to be able to hear these things, whenever we want to. Love it! Sorry this was lengthy. Lol! Just blazed down & a tad stoned. Lol!
@@anamekian1742 haha, that was a nice read. I also just smoked up for bed too haha. I'm Canadian but idk if I have an accent, I've been told I do but that was from other Canadians and nobody can explain it. I think I more am just mumbling and lazily slurring words than an accent.
I'm 63.2% convinced that Rob and Deane are actually extraterrestrial visitors trying to teach away ignorance before it's too late for us...lol. Seriously though, these videos are fantastic and I wish I had been able to see them growing up. We had a few good shows like Bill Nye the Science Guy and Beakman's World when I grew up but I really like the non-hammy way stuff was presented here. Kinda makes me think of Secrets of the Universe on the movie UHF 🤣
During my school project in late 90s, we were using tiny Red LED bulb rather than filament bulb. This shows how much technology has change between 80s and 90s.
Adding a (variable) resistor also works with LEDs ... think of it as a tap of water running halfway turned on vs running fully turned on but clogged half of the time (switching at a very fast rate). In the end you get the same output of water. It depends on your application and circuit which approach is to be prefered.
I know a lot about logic circuits, not so much about electrical sadly. Why does increasing the length cause less electricity to make it back? Because when I was explained basic circuits, we didn't learn anything about that. Thanks if anyone explains.
huh. yes, while they did get the flow direction (well, there's even problems associated with that idea as it dramatically oversimplifies what's actually going on but I see how that would stretch this topic a bit too far) correctly, that's about pretty much it. I've two issues with the remainder: it's an outright safety concern .. it's extremely easy to get thin wires to glow (just like this classical light bulb is emitting light) and potentially set its surrounding on fire (at least somehow mention it since this clearly is a kid's show). but my biggest issue is: that's in no way actual dimmers work. you really wouldn't wanna have it heat up and pose as a, well, you guessed it, hazard. they cut out electricity altogether. done quickly enough, humans don't notice the flickering (flies might .. but it's not that hard since you've afterglow as well). on a dimmer, you essentially set a certain voltage. a higher one would trigger the mechanism to kinda switch off the light altogether so that it looks like at a certain phase, the power gets cut off (it's typically easily audible, actually). so, bottom line: I heavily miss the remark that while this all's very interesting, it's done "differently" in the "actual thing."
yes, it would (it's even somehow implied in this segment because they claim, this is how your light dimmer at home works which runs "on" AC. so they know, this would work with AC. just, that principle isn't used because foremost, it would cause heat issues)
You can use any very very fine wire. The problem is that in your day to day life rarely do you encounter wires that are as fine as what's used in steel wool. Fine steel wool fibers are 0.04 mm or 1.5 thousandths of an inch. Due to the low total power consumption of the lamp a wire that's any larger than shown are not going to have enough resistance/voltage drop across a short length as shown in the experiment.
@@otm646 why does it drop in the first place with thin wire? Is it getting lost to the environment or something more? Bc I thought length wouldn't affect the bottleneck in that way, but idk much about elecricts
@@SquirrelASMR Resistance in a conductor is basically a measure of how likely an electron is to run into a positive ion on its way through. Think of balls rolling down a ramp and when they get to the end they push a button which briefly turns on a light. Now put holes in the floor every few metres - not all the balls will fall into a hole, but some will. If you make the ramp wider (or use a thicker wire) then more of the balls are likely to avoid falling in a hole. If it's narrower almost all of the balls will. Likewise for if the ramp is longer - the more holes the balls have to get past, the less likely that they'll get all the way down without falling. It's an oversimplification - there's a lot more going on with elecricity than this analogy can cover - but it's enough for this particular case I think.
Graphite is, particularly. Other forms of carbon, I'm not so sure about. Fun Fact: some of the first incandescent light bulbs--or the prototypes, anyway--used little carbon rods as the filament.
This is my first acquaintance with the Australian use of the word "globe" to mean a lightbulb. When in Australian is a lightbulb called a globe and when is it not?
The two terms are largely interchangable. Even compact flourescents were often referred to as "flourescent globes" in spite of the shape bearing no similarity to a globe.
Of course it's OK, Andy! We are glad you have discovered our Curiosity Show RUclips channel. Rob and I believe that learning can be fun. Share the good news with your friends. www.curiosityshow.com.au Deane.
You can tell it's an old show. If it had been modern, he would've _instantly_ mentioned how the only reason he is holding something which a current is passing through is because that current is so weak, and how electricity is really dangerous and you shouldn't touch something if you're not 100% sure, etc, etc...
Thanks. Curiosity Show was a national science program featuring Dr Rob Morrison and Dr Deane Hutton. It was made in Adelaide, South Australia and screened nationally in Australia as well as in Europe, Asia and Australasia (14 countries and dubbed in German for Europe) from 1972-1990. Deane and Rob intentionally used everyday items around the house (like old rusty cans) so that people could repeat the demonstrations with materials they had to hand. In 1984 Curiosity Show won the Prix Jeunesse International, the world's top award for TV programs for young people. Rob and Deane are steadily uploading segments at ruclips.net/user/curiosityshow Why not subscribe?
This is not how real dimmers work. This method wastes energy as heat. A real dimmer uses AC electricity and pulse width modulation to avoid wasting heat
Well they work completely differently, are based on completely different mechanisms, have very different requirements, and have vastly different trade-offs; but yea, they both manage to achieve a similar result in this particular situation. So I'm gonna say: no.
@@timharig A conductive slider moving up and down an inductor. It's functionally a potentiometer/variable resistor that uses a sliding tap. How are they not the same core principle?
"they work completely differently": One works by controlling voltage while the other works by controlling current. "are based on completely different mechanisms": Reactance vs. resistance. "have very different requirements": Inductors don't do much with DC. "have vastly different trade-offs" : Resistance works with DC but has two major problems. 1. It loses real energy to heat whereas you don't really lose reactive energy. 2. The inductive method will tend to maintain a relatively constant voltage throughout its targeted load range. Since the resistive method is limiting current, it will vary the voltage widely as the load changes. The fact that they both use brushes is mostly incidental. I mean I guess by your logic you would say a piston is pretty much the same as a jet engine because they both have a throttle?
@@4pThorpy No. Thickness and length will both contribute to resistance (varying thickness is how you create rheostats with either linear or logarithmic tapers) . Inductance is not determined by the length of the conductor so much as it is defined by its shape and number of turns a well as its core, mutual inductance, etc. Calculating the resistance of a chunk of conductor is relatively straight forward. Calculating the inductance of coil or cable , especially if it isn't a solenoid or straight wire, can be much more difficult. You might also consider that a mechanical wiper is not the only way to select the coils of an autotransformer. Since that is what you seem to be focusing on. It could also be done using solid state switching. How the coil is selected is incidental to its function in the circuit.
I doubt that, even forty years ago, one dollar, Australian or Canadian or American, was enough to buy all these parts new. The batteries, alone, were more than a dollar, I bet.
I found a picture from that era of a Radio Shack battery club card that gave the bearer one free battery per month for a year, with a maximum value of $5.88. That puts a single D cell battery at around 49 cents. Though I suspect the intent in this project was to use batteries that were just lying around.
It may have been this very episode that encouraged me to become an electrical engineer. Much of what I have become and many of the things I have created are the result of this and other wonderful educational programming from the 70s and 80s in Australia. I loved the Curiosity Show when I was a kid, there is unfortunately no real equivalent available now days. I am very pleased to see the show available online for future generations!
I'm just impressed they pointed out the electron current properly, as electrons flowing from the negative terminal
Electron didn't flow
@@wumbology3109 electron drift
@@wumbology3109 yes they do. By what definition don't they flow.
Holy smokes.
Conductors, insulators, resistance and flow of electrons. Explained brilliantly and practically.
This is actually a masterclass in presenting information.
I remember watching this as a kid. It gave me my first understanding of how a torch works. I made my own circuit soon after I managed to get ahold of a light bulb.
Thanks guys.
I totally loved this show as a kid. I remember learning how to make a torch using a battery, a rubber band, a light bulb and a piece of aluminium foil. I made it so many times thinking it was so awesome.
Thank you so much for starting this channel.
Thanks - a great pleasure - Rob
0:15 I'd just like to point out that I don't ever want to see anything I have eaten. I hope we keep the lights really low if that ever happens.
Excellent demonstration!
Thanks for your kind remarks. Deane.
My 9 year old son is just learning about electricity and circuits in school. I think we'll have to make one of these this weekend! Thanks!
The steel wool bit makes me wonder how many people substituted 9 volt batteries, and REALLY lit up the house.
you're so right. they should've at least mention how this also imposes some safety issue, lol. not wanna take the fun out of experimenting, but that's nothing wrong of rising at least the awareness.
That’s part of the experimental process. Try it on your friends ;-)
Wow filmed in Adelaide, my home town 🤩 an even bigger appreciation for the show I grew up on. You guys are pretty much why I do what I do today and I realise lots of my videos have many ground root similarities and now I know why 😂.
Its 2022 and the knob on the wall has become the many knobs on my phone for all the rooms.... So glad these two are alive and well to see how far we have come.
This is great, I never thought about a dimmer that way!
you were very right of doing so, actually .. they don't really work this way!
same principle in the trigger controller of a slot car set.. thin wire rapped around a mica strip, the spring-loaded trigger slides a steel bar forward and back.. simple and reliable.
Beautiful demonstration.
Ahh.. reliving my childhood. Finish school, get home, glass of Milo, couple of Tim Tams, kick back in front of The Curiosity Show.
So the screwdriver is a semiconductor?
womp, womp, wowowowomp!
lol :) of course not!
How can a driver be a conductor at the same time?
I like biscuits....alot
It’s a resistor. A semiconductor conducts in one direction
I’ve gotten so much out of these videos in the past few weeks, I wish I could’ve seen these growing up!
Thorough and marvelously done! As you were separating the metals from the list of things that may be conductive, I said to myself: "if he only had a piece of carbon to test...". And you did! Bonus points for not confusing viewers with "conventional" electron flow.
I'm an electrical engineering major and I've never seen a demo like this. Could never get a decent explanation for how dimmers work. Thanks, Deane!!
Mr wizard's world was my favorite show in my youth. We need more shows like this.
I remember having watched the show as a kid here in germany. And how i loved it.
Many thanks - lots more at ruclips.net/user/curiosityshow with new stuff each week for subscribers - Rob
the musick is frightful
Lololol
Sticky tape & rubber bands!
As an American, I always find the way different English-speaking regions pronounce different words & syllables.
For instance, how he pronounces “Aluminum”.
To ME, he even put the emphasis on a completely different syllable than I would.
They also add an extra "i" in aluminum vs aluminium
@@SquirrelASMR Yeah…see? There ya _GO._ Lol!! Just like _THAT!_
Good _work_ there! And thank you, for adding that in. I commence you & tip my hat in your direction!
It’s just so _INTERESTING,_ to me. Ya know?
Growing up in the Appalachian Mountain Plateaus (what they apparently call it now. We called it Foothills most of my life), of Northeast Kentucky - on the shared border of Ohio & West Virginia, creating a Tri-State area; & straight north of the western tip of Virginia), in the 80s & 90s. At that time, smaller places like _that_ seemed like older times, when ya don’t see much else of the world. We still took vacations & trips. But, we were also _not_ a “wealthy” family.
So, you didn’t hear too many foreign accents nor very much. Most we ever did, at _HOME_ (which is 98% _WHITE,_ & I married one of the few black women, in m ya he group there. Lol!! So, we left & came to SW Florida on the Gulf Coast straight south of Tampa…) was when the Brazilian, German, & Scottish foreign exchange students came in every year. _THAT_ was pretty cool. But, that’s all we got.
Had a couple Canadians.
Even not many from other parts of the States _itself!_ Lol! We had one girl transferred from Minnesota, & she had a *THICK* accent, to start. Lol!!
Cincy has a very unique accent, that I picked up in college. Lol!
So, anyway….all these different places speaking the SAME language. But, they have enough differences that there should be 4 Sub-Languages.
British English, American English (which Canadians speak), Australian English (which New Zealand speaks), & South African English. Lol!
Had a couple Aussie friends, in college. That was cool.
But, modern internet has come SO far! Like, even just since I graduated College at & from Marshall University back in 2007..it has evolved & morphed _TREMENDOUSLY._
So, it’s opened up the opportunity to be able to hear these things, whenever we want to. Love it!
Sorry this was lengthy. Lol! Just blazed down & a tad stoned. Lol!
@@anamekian1742 haha, that was a nice read. I also just smoked up for bed too haha. I'm Canadian but idk if I have an accent, I've been told I do but that was from other Canadians and nobody can explain it. I think I more am just mumbling and lazily slurring words than an accent.
I'm 63.2% convinced that Rob and Deane are actually extraterrestrial visitors trying to teach away ignorance before it's too late for us...lol.
Seriously though, these videos are fantastic and I wish I had been able to see them growing up. We had a few good shows like Bill Nye the Science Guy and Beakman's World when I grew up but I really like the non-hammy way stuff was presented here. Kinda makes me think of Secrets of the Universe on the movie UHF 🤣
Every episode is so inspirational.
During my school project in late 90s, we were using tiny Red LED bulb rather than filament bulb. This shows how much technology has change between 80s and 90s.
It would be great to know which episode and year each clip was from. I'd like to see the very first episode from 1972.
It’s be great but I think it was wiped. This episode I think is from the early-mid ‘80s
Great segment, Deane!
Where did he buy his jersey?
That shirt is awesome.
Would this work with an led?
G’day all, this show is awesome, I would always watch when I was younger. It’s shows like this that make you think.
"particles" he says
love it
This is bloody brilliant
To make a dimmer, also works with LED lights, look up how to make a PWM circuit with transistors. PWM = Pulse width modulation.
Adding a (variable) resistor also works with LEDs ... think of it as a tap of water running halfway turned on vs running fully turned on but clogged half of the time (switching at a very fast rate). In the end you get the same output of water. It depends on your application and circuit which approach is to be prefered.
I know a lot about logic circuits, not so much about electrical sadly. Why does increasing the length cause less electricity to make it back? Because when I was explained basic circuits, we didn't learn anything about that. Thanks if anyone explains.
Fun fact about the pencil if you draw hard and thick enough lines on a piece of paper you can use those to conduct the electricity.
Cool. Now do quantum tunneling.
idk why i just enjoy it its just fun to watch
huh. yes, while they did get the flow direction (well, there's even problems associated with that idea as it dramatically oversimplifies what's actually going on but I see how that would stretch this topic a bit too far) correctly, that's about pretty much it. I've two issues with the remainder: it's an outright safety concern .. it's extremely easy to get thin wires to glow (just like this classical light bulb is emitting light) and potentially set its surrounding on fire (at least somehow mention it since this clearly is a kid's show). but my biggest issue is: that's in no way actual dimmers work. you really wouldn't wanna have it heat up and pose as a, well, you guessed it, hazard. they cut out electricity altogether. done quickly enough, humans don't notice the flickering (flies might .. but it's not that hard since you've afterglow as well). on a dimmer, you essentially set a certain voltage. a higher one would trigger the mechanism to kinda switch off the light altogether so that it looks like at a certain phase, the power gets cut off (it's typically easily audible, actually). so, bottom line: I heavily miss the remark that while this all's very interesting, it's done "differently" in the "actual thing."
Ooo interesting! Thanks for sharing. 😀🧠👍
Well, there's that screwdriver I've been missing for years
Water is not a conductor, but salt water is.
Does it work for AC current?
Now, lemme guess you're going to shock yourself by putting these in the power outlet of your house, he's using small batteries to avoid that risk
yes, it would (it's even somehow implied in this segment because they claim, this is how your light dimmer at home works which runs "on" AC. so they know, this would work with AC. just, that principle isn't used because foremost, it would cause heat issues)
Wow. I think I just had a lightbulb moment.
Would look better on the dining room table than on the wall :o)
Can something else be used instead of steel wool?
You can use any very very fine wire. The problem is that in your day to day life rarely do you encounter wires that are as fine as what's used in steel wool. Fine steel wool fibers are 0.04 mm or 1.5 thousandths of an inch.
Due to the low total power consumption of the lamp a wire that's any larger than shown are not going to have enough resistance/voltage drop across a short length as shown in the experiment.
@@otm646 Thank you !
@@otm646 why does it drop in the first place with thin wire? Is it getting lost to the environment or something more? Bc I thought length wouldn't affect the bottleneck in that way, but idk much about elecricts
@@SquirrelASMR Resistance in a conductor is basically a measure of how likely an electron is to run into a positive ion on its way through. Think of balls rolling down a ramp and when they get to the end they push a button which briefly turns on a light. Now put holes in the floor every few metres - not all the balls will fall into a hole, but some will. If you make the ramp wider (or use a thicker wire) then more of the balls are likely to avoid falling in a hole. If it's narrower almost all of the balls will. Likewise for if the ramp is longer - the more holes the balls have to get past, the less likely that they'll get all the way down without falling.
It's an oversimplification - there's a lot more going on with elecricity than this analogy can cover - but it's enough for this particular case I think.
@@TheMightySwash okkkkk thankeee!!! I appreciate it 🙏
i didnt know Deane was a Minnesota Wild fan!
Carbon is conductive?
Graphite is, particularly. Other forms of carbon, I'm not so sure about. Fun Fact: some of the first incandescent light bulbs--or the prototypes, anyway--used little carbon rods as the filament.
and commonly used in brushes on commutators.
Some of the forms of carbon are good conductors of electricity and heat! (Diamond is good at both.)
Carbon is essentially a semiconductor. Its an insulator that can be made to conduct based on its molecular structure.
That opening joke lol
The opening jingle sounds like something out of a David Cronenberg film ;)
I wonder if anyone has ever used a paper clip as a paper clip......
paper clip ?? never heard of it .... ooh you mean skeleton key for old door locks 😋
So systematically he put all the things, daaamn
That's amazing
Why does he say globe not bulb?
regional thing eh
Because the earth is really flat
viciousKev it is in Australia
If Shakespeare had been Australian it would have been the Bulb Theatre.
Same thing for torch = flashlight.
Some regions have some different names for different things - like pop = soda in Ohio.
❤ very good education
keep going
This is my first acquaintance with the Australian use of the word "globe" to mean a lightbulb. When in Australian is a lightbulb called a globe and when is it not?
The two terms are largely interchangable. Even compact flourescents were often referred to as "flourescent globes" in spite of the shape bearing no similarity to a globe.
Connects batteries to steel wool and lights up the whole house.
Something to try at home, play with electricity.
Show it to your dim friends.
that's a fantastic pun. too bad this comment got buried, somehow.
A home-made potentiometer
Is it okay if I am a big adult human and I am hooked on these targeted-toward-kids videos?
Of course it's OK, Andy! We are glad you have discovered our Curiosity Show RUclips channel. Rob and I believe that learning can be fun. Share the good news with your friends. www.curiosityshow.com.au Deane.
I sure hope not, I've been binge watching the clips for maybe an hour now 🤣
Impressive 👍👍
Reminds me of mr wizard, without the being an asshole to children part.
Do kids care how it would look on the dining room table? :-)
We're not allowed to have romantic dinners in 2019, Deane..
That's liable to get you labelled as sexiest and locked up in prison for life in 2019..
while your statement represents clear dramatisation, the direction we're heading towards actually looks like that, yes.
that guy look much alike john holmes
He got lightup globes tho.
Wasn't that the guy with the enormous knob?
@@tonyhancock3912 Depends what you mean by "enormous knob"
I tried this but I started a fire!
that still counts ... you just made the dim light , more bright lol
and thus, the *_"Potentiometer"_* was invented. 😃
This is a kids show.
Adult stupid people please don't do any stupid comments.
My father have that screwdriver
Really or are you just joking?
Globe, sticky tape, torch batteries? This guy isn't American. Oh, the accent kind of gave it away too.
It's an Australian show so I assume he is Australian.
Your dollar dimmer, butI'm not sure how it will look on the dining room table. Lol
Omg you made rheostat
Rheostat
The only thing wrong is the explanation "electrons moving from one end to another", but i guess for a children show this is OK
You can tell it's an old show. If it had been modern, he would've _instantly_ mentioned how the only reason he is holding something which a current is passing through is because that current is so weak, and how electricity is really dangerous and you shouldn't touch something if you're not 100% sure, etc, etc...
Thanks. Curiosity Show was a national science program featuring Dr Rob Morrison and Dr Deane Hutton. It was made in Adelaide, South Australia and screened nationally in Australia as well as in Europe, Asia and Australasia (14 countries and dubbed in German for Europe) from 1972-1990. Deane and Rob intentionally used everyday items around the house (like old rusty cans) so that people could repeat the demonstrations with materials they had to hand. In 1984 Curiosity Show won the Prix Jeunesse International, the world's top award for TV programs for young people. Rob and Deane are steadily uploading segments at ruclips.net/user/curiosityshow Why not subscribe?
❤️❤️
who has a group romantic dinner?
If only wood was less than a dollar, if only... inflation...
c o o l
Wtf is a globe?..... oooooooh. Drawing pin? Why?
Because it's what you use to pin your drawings on the wall.
does graphene not conduct electricity better than everything now?
This is not how real dimmers work. This method wastes energy as heat. A real dimmer uses AC electricity and pulse width modulation to avoid wasting heat
Ayo this brother from another mother gots a dynamite mustache I would have liked to comb it.
Pretty much how a "variac" (varible autotransformer) works, just with more power and less touching of live wires
Well they work completely differently, are based on completely different mechanisms, have very different requirements, and have vastly different trade-offs; but yea, they both manage to achieve a similar result in this particular situation. So I'm gonna say: no.
@@timharig A conductive slider moving up and down an inductor. It's functionally a potentiometer/variable resistor that uses a sliding tap. How are they not the same core principle?
"they work completely differently": One works by controlling voltage while the other works by controlling current.
"are based on completely different mechanisms": Reactance vs. resistance.
"have very different requirements": Inductors don't do much with DC.
"have vastly different trade-offs" : Resistance works with DC but has two major problems. 1. It loses real energy to heat whereas you don't really lose reactive energy. 2. The inductive method will tend to maintain a relatively constant voltage throughout its targeted load range. Since the resistive method is limiting current, it will vary the voltage widely as the load changes.
The fact that they both use brushes is mostly incidental. I mean I guess by your logic you would say a piston is pretty much the same as a jet engine because they both have a throttle?
@@timharig They both use the length of the material to control the output, rather than the thickness or "rating" of the material though, right?
@@4pThorpy No. Thickness and length will both contribute to resistance (varying thickness is how you create rheostats with either linear or logarithmic tapers) . Inductance is not determined by the length of the conductor so much as it is defined by its shape and number of turns a well as its core, mutual inductance, etc. Calculating the resistance of a chunk of conductor is relatively straight forward. Calculating the inductance of coil or cable , especially if it isn't a solenoid or straight wire, can be much more difficult.
You might also consider that a mechanical wiper is not the only way to select the coils of an autotransformer. Since that is what you seem to be focusing on. It could also be done using solid state switching. How the coil is selected is incidental to its function in the circuit.
I think it is called a rheostate
Rheostat in 1 dollar
I doubt that, even forty years ago, one dollar, Australian or Canadian or American, was enough to buy all these parts new. The batteries, alone, were more than a dollar, I bet.
I found a picture from that era of a Radio Shack battery club card that gave the bearer one free battery per month for a year, with a maximum value of $5.88. That puts a single D cell battery at around 49 cents. Though I suspect the intent in this project was to use batteries that were just lying around.
So screwdriver is bi?
I think you need to weld two strips of metals with different thermal expansion properties or one university student to have that.
There's a piece of steel wool string in my dimmer holy fuck!
short answer: no.
a little longer answer: it's not even the same principle. something missed by this otherwise fantastic show.