My wife was stringing up lights on the garage wreath and had one strand turned around and wanted me to make one of these to “fix” it so it could plug in. It took a second to explain to her the other end was just going to be an exposed line voltage plug.
You’ll learn volts jolt but milliamps will kill you
The whole volts safe amps kill thing is so stupid though, you can’t have any serious amps without serious volts, unless you have near-zero resistance, which a human body does not.
In fairness the sort of person who needs a song to remind them why male-male mains leads are an idiotic idea probably isn’t going to appreciate Ohm’s Law in any sensible capacity.
I find it similar to “the fall doesn’t hurt, it’s the sudden stop at the end”.
But it’s not entirely accurate, because we can be exposed to thousands of volts. For instant, most ESD are between 2k and 10k volts. Van de Graaff generators can generate up to 1,000,000 volts, yet they are regularly used in school classrooms.
Threw one end of the cord out in the yard and put a new male plug on the other end. Went to plug my saw in and found a male end. Silly me! So I swapped the cord around the threw the other end in the yard. Went to plug my saw in and found a male end. Stood there a minute trying to figure out what the hell was going on.
I did this with sausages on plates once. I’d laid out 2 for me, 2 for my wife. She said she only wanted one, I swapped one of hers for one of mine, but I couldn’t work out why there were still two on each plate. I tried again, same result. Had to take a pause for a sec and and work out what exactly was going wrong 😂
I just recently did the same with a set of patio lights. Was shortening a set of lights which hang over my porch. Measured out the length I needed, cut the cord, attached a new female end. Went to plug the other end in… also female!
You see, if the device from the meme was ever plugged in, it’d blow the breaker immediately. This male to male cord, if plugged into two outlets would do nothing.
If I’m not mistaken plugging this in to the same outlet won’t do anything. And as far as back feed problems couldn’t you just shut off the the main breaker, i.e. where the power comes into the house?
People usually want them so they can run Christmas lights the wrong way, either because theyve already strung them up backwards or they’re too dumb to figure out a better solution, but the end result if one end is left unplugged is an enormous amount of power just running loose at the exposed end. Even if you just wanted to plug it into the same outlet as a joke, if you plugged one end and touched the prongs on the other end while in the process of plugging the other side in, you’re pretty fucked.
There are legal ones for generators (especially small scale solar stuff) that turn off automatically when they detect no main power on the line, so grid workers can’t get zapped. They are pretty common around here.
Those are called Interconnects, use “Inlets” to hook them up and are not illegal. The suicide cable with two male ends can electrocute the owner and the line workers.
The perfect dorm-warming gift:
My friend worked in a hardware store for a couple years and he said that around Christmas time you get about a dozen people asking for these.
My wife was stringing up lights on the garage wreath and had one strand turned around and wanted me to make one of these to “fix” it so it could plug in. It took a second to explain to her the other end was just going to be an exposed line voltage plug.
There’s a type of power cord
You’ll touch the end and see the Lord
And you wouldn’t want that current going through ya
While male on male is usually great
You’ll find yourself in a sorry state
You’ll learn volts jolt but milliamps will kill you
hallelujah etc
The whole volts safe amps kill thing is so stupid though, you can’t have any serious amps without serious volts, unless you have near-zero resistance, which a human body does not.
In fairness the sort of person who needs a song to remind them why male-male mains leads are an idiotic idea probably isn’t going to appreciate Ohm’s Law in any sensible capacity.
I find it similar to “the fall doesn’t hurt, it’s the sudden stop at the end”.
But it’s not entirely accurate, because we can be exposed to thousands of volts. For instant, most ESD are between 2k and 10k volts. Van de Graaff generators can generate up to 1,000,000 volts, yet they are regularly used in school classrooms.
Made one of these on accident.
Threw one end of the cord out in the yard and put a new male plug on the other end. Went to plug my saw in and found a male end. Silly me! So I swapped the cord around the threw the other end in the yard. Went to plug my saw in and found a male end. Stood there a minute trying to figure out what the hell was going on.
I’m sure Freud would have something to say about that “mistake”.
OK, that got a literal LOL over here. And that fact I tried to make it work twice!
I did this with sausages on plates once. I’d laid out 2 for me, 2 for my wife. She said she only wanted one, I swapped one of hers for one of mine, but I couldn’t work out why there were still two on each plate. I tried again, same result. Had to take a pause for a sec and and work out what exactly was going wrong 😂
I just recently did the same with a set of patio lights. Was shortening a set of lights which hang over my porch. Measured out the length I needed, cut the cord, attached a new female end. Went to plug the other end in… also female!
Female-female is OK. It’s male-male that’s hot. Know what I mean? Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.
Hillbilly generator hookup. Backfeed hazard.
You see, if the device from the meme was ever plugged in, it’d blow the breaker immediately. This male to male cord, if plugged into two outlets would do nothing.
That’s not always true. If the two outlets are on the same electrical phase, you may be okay. If they are on different phases, it would be dangerous.
Also after plugging one side in, the other side is a fun little cattle prod.
Define fun
Fun for your nipples.
Know anyone withholding information?
you can just cut a normal power cord and have that.
If I’m not mistaken plugging this in to the same outlet won’t do anything. And as far as back feed problems couldn’t you just shut off the the main breaker, i.e. where the power comes into the house?
People usually want them so they can run Christmas lights the wrong way, either because theyve already strung them up backwards or they’re too dumb to figure out a better solution, but the end result if one end is left unplugged is an enormous amount of power just running loose at the exposed end. Even if you just wanted to plug it into the same outlet as a joke, if you plugged one end and touched the prongs on the other end while in the process of plugging the other side in, you’re pretty fucked.
It will either instantly trip the breaker or do absolutely nothing, depending on how it’s wired internally.
The real danger comes from when only one end is plugged in, though. With only one end plugged in, the other end becomes a 120V cattle prod.
They’re illegal and it’s only safe IF the home owner remembers to turn off Mains.
There are legal ones for generators (especially small scale solar stuff) that turn off automatically when they detect no main power on the line, so grid workers can’t get zapped. They are pretty common around here.
Those are called Interconnects, use “Inlets” to hook them up and are not illegal. The suicide cable with two male ends can electrocute the owner and the line workers.