Alexa - can you murder my child?

Would it actually be dangerous with a plug with sleeved pins? Obviously some old style plugs will still be around and no argument that you wouldn?t want to mess with one of those, but with the sleeved pin plugs, won?t disconnection from the sockets terminals have occurred by the time has been withdrawn far enough to expose the metal tips of the plugs pins?

Tim

I presume the "challenge" is intended for USA NEMA-1 two prong plugs?

No.

But the newspapers need news:-)

The person it was recommended to is in Minnesota, where dropping a penny across hot and neutral is news of the bad kind.

Theo

Although a US based story - not going to work here with shrouded pins, and an earth pin in the way!

Yup, other versions of the article I have seen showed the aftermath of some rather charred looking US style "duplex" sockets.

One of my early memories of 'playing with electricity' was when we had a train set running (powered by mains transformer) and we called for dinner. I wanted to unplug the transformer from the wall but it proved resistant ... for some reason there was a bone-handled knife nearby ... I tried to put the blade between the 'plug top' and the socket to lever it out.

This didn't seem to work either so I left it there (!) and went for my meal. When I came back, all of this was revealed somehow. I remember that the blade of the knife had two deep pin-shaped gouges 'melted' out of it, and the bone handle had fallen off, heavily charred inside.

It was an educative experience and I felt pretty lucky. I will have been eight or nine, perhaps, so late sixties/early seventies, with no shrouded pins.

J^n

snip. Most kids would find a nonsleeved plug, plenty are still in use.

You were lucky, the first train sets ran at mains voltage on the track, with just a series lightbulb as a dropper - which of course dropped nothing when the train wasn't running.

When I was about 7, I got left alone in the house quite a lot - and was consequently bored. So I climbed up on my father's chair, got the bottle of lighter fuel, opened the door of the Rayburn, and swished some of the contents on the burning coals. WHOOOM!!! On that particular occasion it WHOOMed rather more than usual and the bottle's cork caught fire. Luckily I had the presence of mind (a) not to drop the bottle, and (b) to blow the flame out on the cork.

I put the bottle back and didn't touch it after that.

Yes, I've seen one of those - but only in a museum.

Presumably Alexa is just picking up articles on the internet. If so, of course it will sometimes come up with an odd or dangerous one.

You can fit a (British) penny between the three pins. I don't know whether the power is connected while there is still some metal visible on the power pins.

Try it. It is supposed to be a challenge!

With an older 3-pin plug, before shrouded pins were introduced, you could do this. Or you could rest the penny outside the triangle, between the live and earth pins as you inserted the plug. Shrouded pins should prevent this, because the metal part of the pin should be fully inside the socket before the tips of the pins make contact - emphasis on "should" ;-)

But why? To create a bit of a spark, and hear the fuse wire blow or the MCB trip - closely followed by shouts of "the power's just gone off".

The US socket shown in

The original challenge required the plug to be plugged in. A penny will touch earth - the top pin - and either (but not both) of the side pins (Live & Neutral, It would also touch both live & neutral if pushed up from below.

Who remembers the MK BS1363 plugs with spring loaded shrouds ?  My mother still has a couple of appliances with them. Over engineering at its best !

Never saw one, If I had I'd have noticed

Well this is it just looking up info from a web site I'd imagine It would be almost impossible to police it as if it can access certain sites outside of Amazons control it will merely voice the content. As to the danger. In this case, probably very low risk, but everyone should grow up with a healthy respect for electricity. I suggest that if the charger has shrouded pins as they all now should, pulling it out enough to be able to fit a coin between the pins would only expose the plastic. Even if it did short, then a circuit breaker or fuse in the consumer unit would trip. and as you were only holding it with one hand, assuming you were not earthed via any other part of your body, then not a lot would happen. Of course every danger is relative, and if you really did want to kill yourself there are still easy ways to try it with sockets, screwdrivers and such.

Incidentally who has never set fire to wire wool on a lantern battery? No chance of electrocution but big chance of a fire.

While talking about lady a and its ilk Have you noticed the censorship of itself? Ask it to play The bitch is back by Elton John, if you have Amazon music, and it will bleep the word bitch. Could be interesting if it was reading a dog breeders web site.

There is another Elton John song it censors its announcement of Jamaica Jerk off, which is a very much send up track. Its really very laughable because it is quite happy to play either track in any case. And for that matter the rude version of Don't Marry Her by Beautiful South. Brian

IN some parts of Spain you don't even need a coin as the wires are exposed in the two pin plug where they pop out of the bottom secured only bye the screw in pins. I often wonder why more people are not electrocuted in some places, given the wiring standards in some chalet rooms, like wires twisted to gather to lengthen them just with insulating tape round the join etc. Brian

Does anyone remember that proposed new uk standard where the plug was put into a recess and slid up to switch it on so it would be almost impossible to get hold of a live connection. I often wondered why we instead kept on with the modified system we have. One weakness of these is that if I use a fan heater and pull it too hard it half pulls the plug out but still works and starts heating up the socket due to the smaller connection area. Brian