How To Taste The Electric
Can you taste electricity? Maybe not, but it feels as if you can.
You will need:
You will need:
- 9-volt battery
- Snap connector for battery terminals
- Multimeter
Moisten your tongue and touch the tip of it to the metal terminals of a 9-volt battery. The sudden sharp tingle that you feel is caused by electricity flowing from one terminal of the battery , through the moisture on and in your tongue, to the other terminal. Because the skin of your tongue is very thin and the nerves are close to the surface, you can feel the electricity very easily.
Now stick out your tongue, dry the tip of it very thoroughly with a tissue, and repeat the experiment without allowing your tongue to become moist again. You should feel less of a tingle.
Tools:
Check the instructions that came with the meter to find out whether you have
Now stick out your tongue, dry the tip of it very thoroughly with a tissue, and repeat the experiment without allowing your tongue to become moist again. You should feel less of a tingle.
Tools:
to install a battery in it, or whether a battery is preinstalled.
Most meters have removable wires, known as leads . Most meters also have three sockets on the front, the leftmost one usually being reserved to measure high electrical currents. We can ignore that one for now.
The leads will probably be black and red. The black wire plugs into a socket labeled “COM” or “Common.” Plug the red one into the socket labeled “V” or “volts.”
If your meter doesn’t do autoranging, each position on the dial will have a number beside it. This number means “no higher than.” For instance if you want to check a 6-volt battery, and one position on the voltage section of the dial is numbered 2 and the next position is numbered 20, position 2 means “no higher than 2 volts.” You have to go to the next position, which means “no higher than 20 volts.”
Most meters have removable wires, known as leads . Most meters also have three sockets on the front, the leftmost one usually being reserved to measure high electrical currents. We can ignore that one for now.
The leads will probably be black and red. The black wire plugs into a socket labeled “COM” or “Common.” Plug the red one into the socket labeled “V” or “volts.”
If your meter doesn’t do autoranging, each position on the dial will have a number beside it. This number means “no higher than.” For instance if you want to check a 6-volt battery, and one position on the voltage section of the dial is numbered 2 and the next position is numbered 20, position 2 means “no higher than 2 volts.” You have to go to the next position, which means “no higher than 20 volts.”
If you make a mistake and try to measure something inappropriate, the meter will show you an error message such as “E” or “L.” Turn the dial and try again.
