Awesome Electricity

Musician and maker Mattias Krantz has done some pretty crazy things to pianos. This time, he teamed up with Mehdi Sadaghdar of Electroboom to create the most dangerous piano ever. Using a bunch of cheap camera capacitors, he modified his hammer-head piano to create high-voltage sparks when played.

During their 28 years together, Daft Punk used lots of synthesizers and electronic equipment to make their music. But as far as we recall, tesla coils were not in their arsenal. Thankfully, we have Franzoli Electronics, who used his high-voltage noise-makers to play an awesome cover version of Around the World.

Tesla coils give us one of the few controlled ways to see electricity. Apparently, if you stick a nail into a plastic syringe, point it at a live tesla coil, and pull its plunger that it would extract the electric plasma into its barrel. Original footage from ElectroBOOM.

Electricianz is back with another unique wristwatch inspired by electrical circuitry. The Moka Z features a multi-layered face with an exposed coil and battery contacts and a bright LED backlight for its dial. Its case is fabricated from durable class-10 nylon, and it sits on a rich leather strap. Available in 45mm and 42mm sizes.

The reason that electric plugs typically have two or three metal prongs is very easy to explain. But what about those holes you see in the tips of the prongs? Silver Cymbal digs into the backstory and purpose of this mysterious design attribute and shines some light on the topic.

Drop a marble into the top of this tabletop sculpture, and it rolls down a ramp and back into itself endlessly. While it might appear to defy the laws of physics, the trick is that its base contains a hidden battery and electromagnet that accelerates the steel sphere as it comes down the ramp.

If you search around on Amazon, you can find some pretty big portable power banks. But Handy Geng needs more milliamp hours of power, so he got to building this enormous power pack that has batteries totaling 27,000,000 mAh (or 27,000 amp-hours) of power output. And yes, it’s still portable, kinda.

This series of reference books helps electricians, contractors, students, and DIYers navigate the complexities of working with electricity, and within National Electrical Code (NEC) rules. One book covers general electricity topics, and others include residential wiring, conduit bending, and motors and controls.

What happens when you combine Jenga with a stun gun? You get ShiZap! In this block stacking game, players must move and place blocks using a pair of tweezers which deliver an annoying shock if you don’t complete your move fast enough. The bricks also glow brightly under black light for nighttime party fun.

This unique sim game asks players to visit homes and offices to perform electrical repairs. Scenarios include fixing broken switches and outlets, installing wiring, and troubleshooting devices. And yes, electrocution is always a risk. First Shock, a free prologue to the full Electrician Simulator is coming to Steam 11.2021.

Allen Pan is a big Mythbusters fan – but he thinks they got one of their experiments wrong. In 2008 Adam, Jamie, and Grant attempted to create a stun gun that shoots electricity through water and failed. Allen came up with a different approach, playing with laminar flow to keep power flowing through two streams of water.

Supercapacitors have one big advantage over batteries – they charge much faster. But they also discharge energy more quickly, limiting operating range. This makes them suboptimal for EVs. Engineer Tom Stanton built a supercapacitor pack and drive unit for an E-bike to see just how it stacks up to battery power.

Solar energy is out there for the taking, but is it really free? Wren from Corridor Crew digs into the realities of generating power from various energy sources, and illustrates the number of solar panels and space we’d need to replace dangerous fossil fuels with clean solar energy.

It’s been a while since we checked in on PhotonicInduction’s dangerous and destructive electrical experiments. With 1000 amps running through the blade of a kitchen knife, it glows a brilliant reddish-orange and can surely slice through much more than a stick of butter. But how long until the knife itself fails?

Capacitors are capable of storing large amounts of energy and releasing it quickly. The Backyard Scientist teamed up with Peter Sripol and William Osman to show just how dangerous capacitors can be by subjecting a variety of objects to the power stored in a 20,000-volt bank of capacitors. Don’t even think of trying this at home.

Capturing the power of the wind and turning it into electricity has proven to be a key component in reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. But wind generators require massive fans and typically must be placed in less populous areas. Matt Ferrell explores technology currently in development that could harness the wind’s energy without any moving parts.

Inspired by science instructor Bruce Yeany, YouTuber NightHawkInLight wanted to see if he could cook a hot dog while it floated in the air. NightHawk improved on Yeany’s compressed air levitation, using a nichrome and copper coil to heat his wiener instead of a blowtorch.

This incredibly creative promotional video for Japanese infrastructure company Kandenko is designed to send the message that “each person lights the future.” The sequences were created with a conductive thread called Smart-X which can be used to sew designs incorporating batteries and LED lighting.

After watching a video from Plasma Channel which explored the possibilities of levitating objects with electrostatic energy, Mehdi from ElectroBOOM decided to see if he could replicate the experiment. Naturally, it’s not an ElectroBOOM video without delivering a jolt or ten to its host.

From the “don’t try this at home” file, Brad Russell shows off what happens when a 2000-volt transformer from a microwave oven is applied to wood painted with sodium bicarbonate. The result is beautiful, tree-like patterns known as Lichtenberg figures.

While the idea of a real-world lightsaber sounds awesome, the amount of power required makes the idea impractical. But to celebrate the release of Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, The Hacksmith came up with the next best thing, a battery-powered version of the predecessor of the weapon, known as a Protosaber. Demo at 14:03.

Artist Bert Hickman creates amazing organic works of art by firing a multimillion volt electron beam into acrylic. The powerful electrical jolt creates lightning bolt patterns inside the plastic. In addition to flat art, he also makes cubes, spheres, and even guitar bodies.

There are lots of videos out there which show you how to pick basic padlocks, but most of them don’t involve running 900 amps of current through them. This is that video, courtesy of LockPickingLawyer, who connected an ordinary Master lock between the electrodes of a powerful transformer. That sound is terrifying.