Can you taste electricity? Maybe not, but it feels as if you can.
You will need:
• 9-volt battery
• Snap connector for battery terminals
• Multimeter
Procedure
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 (Figure 1-16), through the moisture on and in your tongue, to the other terminal. Because the skin of your tongue is very
thin (it’s actually a mucus membrane) 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.
What’s happening here? We’re going to need a meter to find out.
Tools
Setting up your meter
Check the instructions that came with the meter to find out whether you have to install a battery in it, or whether a battery is preinstalled.
Most meters have removable wires, known as leads (pronounced “leeds”).
Most meters also have three sockets on the front, the leftmost one usually being reserved to measure high electrical currents (flows of electricity). 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.” See Figures 1-17 through 1-20.
The other ends of the leads terminate in metal spikes known as probes, which you will be touching to components when you want to make electrical measurements.
The probes detect electricity; they don’t emit it in significant quantities.
Therefore, they cannot hurt you unless you poke yourself with their sharp ends. 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.”
You will need:
• 9-volt battery
• Snap connector for battery terminals
• Multimeter
Procedure
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 (Figure 1-16), through the moisture on and in your tongue, to the other terminal. Because the skin of your tongue is very
thin (it’s actually a mucus membrane) 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.
What’s happening here? We’re going to need a meter to find out.
Tools
Setting up your meter
Check the instructions that came with the meter to find out whether you have to install a battery in it, or whether a battery is preinstalled.
Most meters have removable wires, known as leads (pronounced “leeds”).
Most meters also have three sockets on the front, the leftmost one usually being reserved to measure high electrical currents (flows of electricity). 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.” See Figures 1-17 through 1-20.
The other ends of the leads terminate in metal spikes known as probes, which you will be touching to components when you want to make electrical measurements.
The probes detect electricity; they don’t emit it in significant quantities.
Therefore, they cannot hurt you unless you poke yourself with their sharp ends. 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.”
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