Title text:
Oh, and do you have any tips on how to vacuum up copper that’s melted into your carpet?
Transcript:
Transcript will show once it’s been added to explainxkcd.com
Source: https://xkcd.com/3211/
did xkcd just watch the new styropyro video
Apparently you saw that 400 battery video too.
I haven’t had TWO HOURS to dedicate to it just yet.
I just put that on in the background while I was cooking, cleaning etc. I actually watched the first 30 minutes like a normal video. During the rest, I was actively looking only about 10% of the time.
I usually watch these type of videos while WFH but I haven’t been able to these last few weeks.
Imagine having those explosions in the background during a meeting 😄
Alt-text should be “Resistance is futile”.
Sounds like something Styropyro would do.
“Who did the electrical work in this house?”
“That would be my nephew Thomas, he’s very handy.”
“When Thomas’s house burned down?”
“Oh about two years ago, how did you know.”
Electricity is one of those subjects that will forever remain a mystery to me.
Every circuit has a circuit breaker, it’s just that sometimes the circuit breaker is the power cord or the product itself
‘Fuse’ would be more accurate.
18awg at 100A could be considered a fuse. Or a heating element. One of the two.
First one, then the other.
Good old incandescent extension cords
They’re all incandescent if you’re not a quitter.
Also everything is a fuse
Eh, ~zero impedance house circuits won’t do anything bad to normal electronics - it’ll just make sure no fires happen in your walls. I do almost all home wiring in 12 gauge and larger for this reason
Actually, the comic only has 500A breakers and don’t say anything about wires. Recipe for fire!
I think that’s the joke, especially since the alt text asks about getting melted copper off the carpet.
If each outlet is its own breaker… what’s he running that’s goong to melt those wires?
Unless he has some 16 gauge extension cords going to an electric dryer or something…
Well for starters most residential outlets are rated for 15 amps. You don’t need to run a lot of stuff on that outlet, a vacuum and a space heater is most likely enough for the outlet to overheat. Toss in an extension cord and another appliance and the outlet is going to melt. And since you’re only pulling like 25 amps once the short happens when the live parts touch each other the arc explosion would be spectacular. Since you’re on a 500 amp switch gear breaker with selective coordination set in a way that not only is the outlet done, but the wiring I’m assuming is not ran to the outlet in 600kcm copper, so all the wiring from the outlet to the breaker is also going up in vapor. By the time the breaker trips your house just went through a neat fireworks show and it’s ablaze.
