xkcd #3106: Farads

Title text:

‘This HAZMAT container contains radioactive material with activity of one becquerel.’ ‘So, like, a single banana slice?’

Transcript:

[Cueball holds a stick while talking with Megan and White Hat.]
Cueball: This stick is one meter long.
Megan: Cool.
White Hat: That’s a nice stick.

[Cueball holds a smallish rock.]
Cueball: This rock weighs one pound.
Megan: I’d believe it.
White Hat: Looks like a normal rock.

[Cueball holds a small battery.]
Cueball: This battery is one volt.
Megan: Seems fine.
White Hat: Might need a recharge.

[Cueball holds a capacitor while Megan and White Hat panic.]
Cueball: This capacitor is one farad.
Megan: Aaaaa! Be careful!!
White Hat: Put it down!!

Source: https://xkcd.com/3106/

explainxkcd for #3106

  • bizarroland@fedia.io
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    5 days ago

    Household current pumped through a full bridge rectifier, that is.

    Capacitors don’t seem to do very much with AC Other than attenuate it a bit

    • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
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      5 days ago

      Technically correct. The best kind of correct. :)

      I basically solved for shotgun, confirmed in was in the ~100V range and disregarded every other consideration for actually doing it.
      I’m pretty sure most hand sized capacitors would just pop if you actually tried to put that much in them.

    • kaidezee@lemmy.ml
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      5 days ago

      Actually, they act like a short circuit to high-frequency AC, so it is more like “blow up” (in general case).

      • clif@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        If by AC you mean air conditioner, I just replaced mine with a 50+5uF dual cap @ 370/440 VAC

        • ByteJunk@lemmy.world
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          5 days ago

          Oh. I thought it would be more impressive, but that’s still orders of magnitude away. Thanks!

          • bizarroland@fedia.io
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            5 days ago

            And when they are used for air-conditioning units, they are typically boost capacitors, which means they store up a nice amount of juice for when the compressor powers on and needs a sudden rush of energy, but that’s only a very small amount, like you couldn’t crank a car with the amount of energy in these capacitors.

            • SomeoneSomewhere@lemmy.nz
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              4 days ago

              No. They provide phase shift to give the single-phase induction motors a rotating rather than oscillating magnetic field. They charge and discharge 100/120 times per second depending on grid frequency.

              They do not cover inrush current, and would need to be orders of magnitude bigger and a different topology to do so.