S03.E05: Chicanery

[ghoulina]

I used to work as a pharmacy tech in a retail pharmacy setting. I swear, every 4th customer that came along was talking on the phone. It's the worst. I would refuse to help them until they were done, then they'd get all pissy with ME. But I never slapped a phone out of anyone's hand. I just calmly went about my business until they were done. I did feel Rebecca was rude not to leave the room, but two wrongs don't make a right. Chuck could have left the room instead. 

[Hanahope]

2 hours ago, ghoulina said:

Chuck could have left the room instead. 

Well, he did.  The conversation started in the dining room, and Chuck went into the kitchen.  But then Rebecca followed him into the kitchen (I think carrying a dish or something, I presume to explain why she came into the kitchen).  And then Chuck backed about as far into the kitchen as he could, but Rebecca, oblivious to his discomfort, continued to move towards him while on the phone.

Yes, obviously what Chuck did was rude (medical condition or no), but she too was acting very rudely in having the conversation right in front of him.

[ByTor]

On 5/15/2017 at 1:53 PM, smorbie said:

I can't believe research hours are that long.  He wasn't Victor Frankenstein, after all.

Believe it...they can be.

[PeterPirate]

My daughter is taking Physics in college and I've been doing some tutoring.  It dawned on me that the magnetic field generated by an electric current varies inversely with the distance to the source, not the square-of-the-distance as articulated in the show.  

I also did some rough calculations and found that the amount of current in a disconnected cell phone battery is larger than I expected.  If Chuck really could feel the current of an exit sign from a distance of about 40 feet, he would also be able to feel the current from a cell phone battery inside his pocket.  

Yes, I am a nerd.  

[ketose]

2 hours ago, PeterPirate said:

My daughter is taking Physics in college and I've been doing some tutoring.  It dawned on me that the magnetic field generated by an electric current varies inversely with the distance to the source, not the square-of-the-distance as articulated in the show.  

I also did some rough calculations and found that the amount of current in a disconnected cell phone battery is larger than I expected.  If Chuck really could feel the current of an exit sign from a distance of about 40 feet, he would also be able to feel the current from a cell phone battery inside his pocket.  

Yes, I am a nerd.  

But an unconnected cell phone battery would produce little to no current. Current is drawn from a source to produce work. If a battery has no load, there's no current flow regardless of the battery charge.

[Gobi]

2 hours ago, ketose said:

But an unconnected cell phone battery would produce little to no current. Current is drawn from a source to produce work. If a battery has no load, there's no current flow regardless of the battery charge.

Doesn't really matter. All that mattered was that Chuck thought it would affect him.

[PeterPirate]

An unconnected battery will still lose charge as the ions move across the barrier.  For anyone who is interested, my numbers are inside the spoiler.    

 

Spoiler

From this source, a typical cell phone battery carries a full charge of 7200 coulombs.  From this source, an unconnected cell phone battery self-discharges at up to 3% per month.  From these numbers I got a current of 0.083 mA.  

And from this source, one type of exit sign plugged into a 120-volt source will consume 3.7 watts of power.  From these numbers I got a current of 31 mA, which is 370 times the current of the battery.  So the field from a battery at a distance of one inch will be the same as the field from a sign at a distance of 30 feet.   

Thus ends my display of geek bravado. 

 

Edited April 8, 2018 by PeterPirate