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[Spike Spiegel]

I've never really thought about it before, but now... I MUST KNOW!!!

 

[evil solrac v3.0]

you have to plug it in.... there should be a little switch in the back of it.... THIS IS ELEMENTARY STUFF SPIKE!!! why do i even bother.....

 

[Spike Spiegel]

It is plugged in, it's on. Duh.

...

But there's no switch.

 

[evil solrac v3.0]

It is plugged in, it's on. Duh.

...

But there's no switch.

light bulb maybe? keep looking, the switch has to be on it somewhere.... or maybe in the desk itself....

 

[Spike Spiegel]

:lol

Read my lips... THERE IS NO SWITCH.

I've had this lamp for years. There is no switch, anywhere on the lamp. To turn the thing on, you... touch it.

Touch the lamp anywhere along its structure - the base, the shade, the shaft, even the bulb receptacles - and it comes on. But it only comes on when something living touches it; a finger, a hand, a tongue, or my dog will turn it on, but a book, or a pen, or a shirt, or my keys yield no reaction. As near as I can tell, it has to be touched by something living to activate.

Like I said, I've never really given it much consideration, and I've had the lamp for years. But here I am, bored out of my skull, playing around at PhotoShop, wasting time, and now I've started to wonder about it.

So how in the devil does this thing work?

 

[Teflar]

Touch [it] anywhere along its structure - the base, the shade, the shaft, even the bulb receptacles - and it comes

Sounds kinky...

 

[robot]

I'm so bored at work I actually looked it up:

Taken from Howstuffworks.com

Switches that are sensitive to human touch -- as opposed to switches that must be flipped or pushed to make and break a mechanical connection -- have been around for many years. They certainly have advantages, and the most important is the fact that dirt and moisture cannot get into the switch to gum it up or damage it. Over the years, many different properties of the human body have been used to flip touch-sensitive switches:

Temperature - The human body is generally warmer than the surrounding air. Many elevators therefore use buttons that are sensitive to the warmth of the human finger. These buttons, of course, don't work if you have cold hands. The motion-sensitive lamps you see on people's patios also sense the heat of the human body.

Resistance - The human body, being made mostly of water, conducts electricity fairly well. By placing two contacts very close together, your finger can close the circuit when you touch it.

Radio reception - You may have noticed that, when you touch an antenna, the reception gets better on a TV or radio. That's because the human body makes a pretty good antenna. There are even small LCD TVs that have a conductive neck strap so that the user acts as the antenna! Some touch-sensitive switch designs simply look for a change in radio-wave reception that occurs when the switch is touched.

Touch-sensitive lamps almost always use a fourth property of the human body -- its capacitance. The word "capacitance" has as its root the word "capacity" -- capacitance is the capacity an object has to hold electrons. The lamp, when standing by itself on a table, has a certain capacitance. This means that if a circuit tried to charge the lamp with electrons, it would take a certain number to "fill it." When you touch the lamp, your body adds to its capacity. It takes more electrons to fill you and the lamp, and the circuit detects that difference. It is even possible to buy little plug-in boxes that can turn any lamp into a touch-sensitive lamp. They work on the same principle.

Many touch-sensitive lamps have three brightness settings even though they do not use three-way bulbs. The circuit is changing the brightness of the lamp by changing the "duty cycle" of the power reaching the bulb. A bulb with a normal light switch gets "full power." Imagine, however, that you were you were to rapidly turn the power to the bulb on and off (say 100 times per second) -- then the bulb would only burn half as brightly because its duty cycle is 50 percent (half on, half off). "Rapidly switching the bulb on and off" is the basic idea used to change the brightness of the lamp -- the circuit uses zero percent (off), 33 percent, 66 percent and 100 percent duty cycles to control the lamp's brightness.

 

[evil solrac v3.0]

huh.....................


























































have you tried your penis? or semen? or your dog's penis? does it have to be something warm? food?
edit: i read the article.

 

[Spike Spiegel]

I'm so bored at work I actually looked it up:

Taken from Howstuffworks.com

Touch-sensitive lamps almost always use a fourth property of the human body -- its capacitance. The word "capacitance" has as its root the word "capacity" -- capacitance is the capacity an object has to hold electrons. The lamp, when standing by itself on a table, has a certain capacitance. This means that if a circuit tried to charge the lamp with electrons, it would take a certain number to "fill it." When you touch the lamp, your body adds to its capacity. It takes more electrons to fill you and the lamp, and the circuit detects that difference. It is even possible to buy little plug-in boxes that can turn any lamp into a touch-sensitive lamp. They work on the same principle.

Many touch-sensitive lamps have three brightness settings even though they do not use three-way bulbs. The circuit is changing the brightness of the lamp by changing the "duty cycle" of the power reaching the bulb. A bulb with a normal light switch gets "full power." Imagine, however, that you were you were to rapidly turn the power to the bulb on and off (say 100 times per second) -- then the bulb would only burn half as brightly because its duty cycle is 50 percent (half on, half off). "Rapidly switching the bulb on and off" is the basic idea used to change the brightness of the lamp -- the circuit uses zero percent (off), 33 percent, 66 percent and 100 percent duty cycles to control the lamp's brightness.

That must be it, the lamp does have 3 settings. Thanks for solving that little mystery.

Now if I could just figure out this darn pencil sharpener...

 

[evil solrac v3.0]

That must be it, the lamp does have 3 settings. Thanks for solving that little mystery.

Now if I could just figure out this darn pencil sharpener...

PENCIL SHARPENER!?!?!? it's like this..... *ZZZZZZZZ*

 

[Gek54]

But it only comes on when something living touches it

You are dead.

 

[Escape Goat]

Does it work? Then shut the fuck up!!