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dmg

Tue Jan 19 2010, 01:35AM

Registered Member #2628 Joined: Fri Jan 15 2010, 12:23AM
Location:
Posts: 627

While i can't say this applies to everyone, but most teens in high school (me bieng in grade 10) seem to not give
a rats ass about anything related to electricity or science in general, the only things that seems to be in thier heads, is that science is all about explosions and sparks, never the technical aspect or the inginuity behind it.

A good example is back in grade nine, we had an electrical energy unit, and as a final project we were supposed to
demonstrate how an electrical charge can move, (what better use for a 2KW jacobs ladder!) so i got some mots, some caps and wired it together to make big resonant arcs, (beats battery and lightbulb...), when I explained it to my classmates, in simplest terms I might add, I could see that I was putting the lot of them to sleep, but when I turned it on, suddenly, they all moved closer and I drew a couple of arcs (the principal was present and probably peed a little becuase he was only 3 feet away).

after class, I had some students ask me about this, and this was were I explained my HV hobby, point is, most of them were under the impression that high voltage was absolutly useless, that my hobby with electronics was a waste of (insert item,idea,thing here) after trying to reason with them for the most part of grade nine and a little bit of grade ten, that this "useless electronics" made their ipods, phones, microwaves and pretty much every convinience that I can think of, they still shrug me off and i'll admit, the majority of them are not this blind, (at least they realize that they use electricty and not whatever magic the other ones think.) but I find it rather sad that so very little people take interest on the subject that basicly drives society.
Currently, the only people who I met or know who have some interest in the sciences (mostly electricity) are the wonderfull folks here at 4HV, the advanced computer studies class (only a small handfull of the school population) and my science teacher.

thank you for battling through this barrage of paragraphs, but I wonder, does anybody else here have any experience with people like this?

doctor electrons

Tue Jan 19 2010, 02:36AM

Registered Member #2390 Joined: Sat Sept 26 2009, 02:04PM
Location: Milwaukee Wisconsin
Posts: 381

Sure do! And i am 35! It was pretty much the same for me when i was in school. Same attitudes, same "what will you ever do with that?"!
Not only has it gotten worse, i fear its not done yet. Most kids today think that their ipod pretty much grew on a tree. Hope nobody bashes me for
this but, i think most kids nowadays just want to sit at a desk and get rich. Most of the technical classes have been all but cancelled. For me, its
hard to even find a person i can ask a serious question about a tesla coil, marx, or other hv project, and i work for an electrical engineering firm!
Most of the engineers reply.... "Boy, id have to go back into my old text books to answer that!" Thats what makes this place so great! Plenty of
brilliant people happily pursuing what they love. After all, why else would you do something so diligently! Get used to it gated, i dont think it will get any
better.

rp181

Tue Jan 19 2010, 02:39AM

Registered Member #1062 Joined: Tue Oct 16 2007, 02:01AM
Location:
Posts: 1529

What did you expect?
Im in tenth grade, and no one knows what i do, and I try to keep it that way. The few people who do know found it cool (but then again I didn't go off explaining the theory of railgun's, I know no one cares).

I really don't think its worth explaining things to people who don't have an interest in it. For example, I hate everything about language arts, even though its the basis of human communication. If someone started explaining linguistics (actually, thats mildly interesting, grammar is a better example) to me, I would fall asleep.

In short, everyone has their "thing".

dmg

Tue Jan 19 2010, 03:39AM

Registered Member #2628 Joined: Fri Jan 15 2010, 12:23AM
Location:
Posts: 627

yeah, I can relate to that, while Im good in lang arts, I absolutely hate it,

BUT.. this is not the worst part, kids in my school (while science and maths, albiet the most usefull, are the most hated..)
are failing cources on a regular basis, I am only a grade ten, but there are grade twelves and people who go to center high in my classes and still fail because they literly dont do anything, and to add insult to injury, they are expecting to
make 40K strait out of high school (like anyone will hire them.) and still they dont care and apperantly thier parents dont care either, if my parents found out I need to repeat a class (has'nt happened) It will be my ass.

they only thing they are mostly qualified to do is to text to thier classmates and practice not getting caught by the teacher.

note: we have for the most part 2 semesters a year (half year classes) I mean, how many tries do you need to pass the stupid thing?

Killa-X

Tue Jan 19 2010, 04:51AM

Registered Member #1643 Joined: Mon Aug 18 2008, 06:10PM
Location:
Posts: 1039

Same way I feel here, which happened to be Michigan. Our school system sadly was never abot too much science fairs. But I am taking physics next year, and they do have a whole trimester on electricity. Personally I don't know anyone who does HV. My electrical teacher said he has had students come in, and want to do HV, or already do. Heck, I seen pla kid with a 2x4x10" film capacitor come in the middle of class to ask a question on charging it. But school wise, no one. I'd hate to judge the majority, but from people I acccidently overhear, most teens do what teens do. Movies. Friends. Girls. And I know many that smoke and drink.

I can garentee if I did electrical stuff in physics like you, I'd have the same reaction. My teacher told me this: You arnt classified as a geek/nerd because of what you do. Your someone that actually uses their brain. He then went on saying most kids in school don't, they usually want to sleep all day. He has an interesting way of teaching. You don't give the answers, you let the students find their own answers, by them selfsame. If you ask him for help, he asks you a question to answer your self. School systems fail due to that.

Anyways, on topic, I'd agree. Same thing would happen here!!!

dmg

Tue Jan 19 2010, 05:04AM

Registered Member #2628 Joined: Fri Jan 15 2010, 12:23AM
Location:
Posts: 627

sounds like you have a nice teacher killa,
my science teacher is good too, but has reached that stage where he takes fuckitol, he has over 30 years of experience and probably more then enough experience dealing with idiots, he's a very patient man,(mind you I get tired of idiots for half a year, he had to deal with them for 30)
unforchunately, next year (seeing how I will pass general science) my only choice is to take physics,
I hate biology, and in chemistry, we will probably learn organic chemistry and other junk (already know and not interested)
but in physics, my teacher says the school board is consider REMOVING (AHHH!!!) the electrical part of the curriculum and replacing it with more kinematics... I was looking for an exuse to bring my coil to school once I finish it.

as for the teens do what teens do, I do hear alot of talk about drugs (weed, ecstacy, crack etc.) and the usual predicable high school relationships that never last (however like I said in the first post, this doesn't account for the vast majority)

ScotchTapeLord

Tue Jan 19 2010, 06:06AM

Registered Member #1875 Joined: Sun Dec 21 2008, 06:36PM
Location:
Posts: 635

I'm a freshman in college. The bad news is ... nothing changes! People still want to take the easy way out and are uninterested in science. Even in an engineering school! That's the way it seems at least. The good news is... my roommate has finally stopped getting angry at me for soldering and sparking it up in the dorm!

I expected to find other high voltage enthusiasts here, but it seems we are a dying breed. I've only seen a couple people who are interested in considering electrical engineering, but they are not hobbyists. But perhaps it's for the best... give every idiot an MOT and you'll halve the population. But still, our art needs more respect. I stopped counting the "Are you building a bomb?!"-'s a while ago.

dmg

Tue Jan 19 2010, 06:17AM

Registered Member #2628 Joined: Fri Jan 15 2010, 12:23AM
Location:
Posts: 627

about that, I had some things like that called upon me, I think my favorite is "whats that do" and sometimes, just for the hell of it, I will give a long, Indepth explanation using the most fanciest terms I know, yes im aware they will not understand anything, but it is fun to watch thier reaction. I also have stumped science teachers before in an electricity subject, one time, my teacher said that an circuit cannot be completed unless you have 2 wires going from one end of the power plug the other (Live to neutral) and as most here are aware, it can also go from live to ground.

here's what I said: that's wrong, if it has a path to ground, it will take it, and you can put a load on it.

here's what I SHOULD have said:
a circuit goes around,
unless it has a path to ground,
you can save more wire this way,
AND YOU'LL ALWAYS BE WRONG NO MATTER WHAT YOU SAY!
(appropriatly followed by a musical number)

returning to the people who ask me "what's that do", you usually dont even need to remember what it is or how it works, you can say something like:the hysteresis cause by the 180 degree out of phase windings create a resonant magnetic field that causes a trumendous voltage boost and thus allowing a capacitive discharge and allows the magnetic field to grow exponentially allowing for a bigger discharge, (I KNOW that makes no sence) but with our public, this will sound like something completly genius, or that other time where there was a debate whether to ban dihydrogen monoxide (LOL!!!). point bieng, people are usually ignorant when it comes to science.

besides, what is your roommate complaining, ozone smells great.
ozone good air bad.

Steve Conner

Tue Jan 19 2010, 11:03AM

Registered Member #30 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706

It's true!

I'm teaching basic electronics to foreign students at INTO Scotland this semester, so we'll see how that goes.

High voltage is of considerable economic importance, but making big sparks and bangs with it is completely useless. In industry, they want to stop everything from sparking and banging. The powers involved mean that when something goes bang it can cause millions of dollars worth of damage, not to mention risk to life.

You should consider the Tesla coil sparks and capacitor explosions as a kind of eye candy to spark your interest. If you want them for yourself, you have to do the brainwork to build the apparatus, and you learn a lot of useful things that way. Learning is the end, and the sparks, flames and punctured soda cans are just a means to it.

I've spent the last two years working on a research project to predict electrical plant breakdowns months in advance. (Which pays quite well I must say

)

Renesis

Tue Jan 19 2010, 12:06PM

Registered Member #2028 Joined: Mon Mar 16 2009, 08:13PM
Location: Norway
Posts: 319

gatedbreakdown wrote ...

returning to the people who ask me "what's that do", you usually dont even need to remember what it is or how it works, you can say something like:the hysteresis cause by the 180 degree out of phase windings create a resonant magnetic field that causes a trumendous voltage boost and thus allowing a capacitive discharge and allows the magnetic field to grow exponentially allowing for a bigger discharge, (I KNOW that makes no sence) but with our public, this will sound like something completly genius, or that other time where there was a debate whether to ban dihydrogen monoxide (LOL!!!). point bieng, people are usually ignorant when it comes to science.

I dont think this is entirely fair, any doctor or geologist or atronomer or whatever could easily fool me in this way. Not everyone has an interest in electrisity and we just have to respect that. Altho i do agree that the public view on science is disturbing.

Heh, this quote reminds me of an experience i had while working as an agricultural mechanic. My boss (i was 16 at the time) sendt me out to fetch a bucket of turbo boost. Far out, i know, but i didnt realize he had fooled me until i stood there at the parts storage, and everyone in the room was laughing at me. I didnt think, i just did as i was told.

I must say get a lot of respect from my old classmates. When i tell them that im studying to be a process control engineer they think its cool, but still i cant really explain them what the job consists of. To them its just a fancy title. The same thing goes for my parents.

My current classmates on the other hand, they can make me loose faith in humanity. Something is wrong when after studying electricity for several years you dont even know what a capacitor is, yet alone how to use it. No im not overexaggerating, some of my classmates think electrolytic capacitor = bomb = fun, and nothing else. It is really frustrating, because my teacher have to spend his time teaching students from the ground up, neglecting the few "aces" who actually payed attention in the previous years.

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