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When you lick a battery...

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Original post by The_Last_Melon
The lack of blue on your spiderman upsets me.


The blue is lower down and out of the pic, bro. :awesome:
Reply 21
Avatar for Blazara
Blazara
17
Original post by DeanFoley
...Why do people lick batteries?


Tastes nice ;3
Original post by James82
Probably health and safety doesn't let them teach it these days. :smile: But it's very useful for testing a smoke alarm battery. I guess that's why the fire brigade now just advise you to change them once a year, because we seem to have lost the skill of battery licking.


Tragic. A dying art :frown:. I have an exceptionally long tongue...maybe I should try this.
Reply 23
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James82
17
Original post by ArcadiaHouse
The blue is lower down and out of the pic, bro. :awesome:


But didn't spiderman have massive spider eyes?
Original post by James82
Yeah, I think the OP has been doing it with AA batteries, no idea why he thinks that hurts though.

I used the 9V battery. It has an adapter with a thin wire for each terminal which is used for connecting to a breadboard.
Reply 25
Avatar for James82
James82
17
Original post by DeanFoley
Tragic. A dying art :frown:. I have an exceptionally long tongue...maybe I should try this.


I do wonder what kids do in physics lessons these days, they seem to have stopped them doing all the fun stuff. When I went to uni as a mature student I was amazed that none of my housemates had ever learnt to wire a plug.
Reply 26
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James82
17
Original post by The_Last_Melon
I used the 9V battery. It has an adapter with a thin wire for each terminal which is used for connecting to a breadboard.


Did you not notice that both terminals are on the same end of the battery?
Original post by James82
But didn't spiderman have massive spider eyes?


Dude, LET IT GO :tongue:
Original post by James82
Did you not notice that both terminals are on the same end of the battery?

No I thought they were on my dog's ballbag.

...


The terminals are the first area that battery fluid leaks onto. Best not to touch it at all really.
Original post by ArcadiaHouse
Dude, LET IT GO :tongue:

He also seems to be doing some kind of playground/disco dance which is quite unspidermanlike.
Original post by The_Last_Melon
He also seems to be doing some kind of playground/disco dance which is quite unspidermanlike.


He looks quite camp/sarcastic to me in that pic which is the perfect summation of 99% of my posts tbh.
Original post by DeanFoley
I have an exceptionally long tongue


Hello there :sexface:
Reply 32
Avatar for James82
James82
17
Original post by The_Last_Melon
No I thought they were on my dog's ballbag.


I was only asking because from your OP you seemed to be implying that you could only get one terminal on your tongue.

...


Original post by The_Last_Melon
The terminals are the first area that battery fluid leaks onto. Best not to touch it at all really.


Well, obviously you don't try it if there are any signs of the battery leaking. :rolleyes:
Reply 33
Avatar for Joinedup
Joinedup
20
Original post by James82
I do wonder what kids do in physics lessons these days, they seem to have stopped them doing all the fun stuff. When I went to uni as a mature student I was amazed that none of my housemates had ever learnt to wire a plug.


redundant skill, everythings got a plug wired on when you buy it... Stops idiots selecting themselves out of the gene pool.
Original post by Joinedup
redundant skill, everythings got a plug wired on when you buy it... Stops idiots selecting themselves out of the gene pool.

The whole of science is built on the shoulders of these 'idiots'.
If you lick batteries, you turn into....

Spoiler

Hmmm, this guy I know used to lick batteries frequently as a child, he is now my teacher and a former biology professor - go figure...

But on point, I suspect that the reason you feel pain on one side is due to a combination of complex electrical and neurophysiological effects (or, alternatively, chemical effects) OR EVEN A FRIGGEN COMBO OF THEM ALL.
Reply 37
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The Mr Z
13
To try and give you a scientific explanation. It's not complete, but covers a large part of what is happening.

When you touch a battery to your tongue you're not completing an electric circuit like you do with wires. No electrons will actually flow from one terminal to the other.

Instead the charge carriers are aqueous ions in your saliva, and they transfer charge from one terminal to another by way of chemical reactions called oxidation and reduction, whereby positive ions either stick to the metal surface, absorbing electrons (at one terminal) or metal atoms leave the surface and enter the solution as ions, leaving electrons on the surface.

The ions can move between the terminals to transfer charge, though usually it's not the same ions leaving one that join the other because the distance is comparatively large. Instead your tongue acts as a reservoir of various charges. These ions are what cause the metallic taste.

The chemical reaction that causes this transfer also causes changes in the pH at the terminals, creating acid at one and alkaline at the other. This also contributes to the taste. This may be part of what contributes to the pain. Heat generated may also be an issue.
Reply 38
Avatar for Lewk
Lewk
15
Original post by James82
To test whether they need replacing or not.


I think the OP needed his batteries changing a long time ago :rolleyes:
I contemplated licking a battery when I was about 5, but decided I wasn't enough of a retard to do so. Got my little sister to do it instead. True story.

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