Realising Obvious Things (that Blow Your Mind)

wesimmo said:
:cry:

Honestly, I asked a couple of people I know and tested my own, none of them worked like that.

It struck me as eminently sensible on first thought, but for it to be useful, all toasters would have to toast equally, so I doubted it on second thoughts. :D
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You're smoking something fella, or have a broken toaster. Toasters are electromagnetic; the dial is just a timer. There isn't a Greenwich toaster time though, and odds of them keeping accurate time is low, so they use a proxy. A bit like your cars heater or most showers - an arbitrary numbering system.
 
Mr.Cookie said:
I've long been able to wire a plug but it was only when my wife said the blue wire goes bottom left because it starts bl, the brown bottom right because it starts br and what left goes in the middle.
I have no idea if this was deliberately done but it did blown my little mind :D
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It was only a month or so past that I discovered that the little paper slip on the back of a new plug not only shows the wiring orientation but also shows the lengths of each wire and the amount of insulation that should be stripped off.
 
As pocket calculators were invented in the 70's, before then a calculator referred to a person who was adept/professional at written or mental arithmetic.

Mechanical calculators did exist for some rich people, but were called a "Comptometer".
 
Also on the subject of toasters I worked at a factory for 27 years who made them and I had to test them.
The elements in ours weren't adjustable like the elements on an electric cooker and were on full all the time so people above have correctly pointed out the knob is the amount of time.
 
Cooler running said:
As pocket calculators were invented in the 70's, before then a calculator referred to a person who was adept/professional at written or mental arithmetic.

Mechanical calculators did exist for some rich people, but were called a "Comptometer".
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I know that NASA used 'Computers' who were human.
An absolutely amazing film on the subject is called Hidden Figures about three black women who became famous.
 
SexyGreyFox said:
I know that NASA used 'Computers' who were human.
An absolutely amazing film on the subject is called Hidden Figures about three black women who became famous.
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In middle English "calkelatour" means a mathematician or perhaps astronomer, borrowed from the Latin "calculātor".
As far as I'm aware a "computer" as a job was a more modern, primarily American term, but could be wrong about that.
 
Thick bread burns quicker than thin bread in a toaster. This is because the faces of the bread are closer to the heating elements.

When I realised this, it vastly improved my toast experiences!

Vote thread title change to "interesting facts about toasters" :P
 
Another interesting fact about toasters
You can't electrocute yourself by putting a knife in because the wires are hidden and all you're touching is an element.
One of our tests with toaster elements (and cooker elements) was to put a metal rod onto them so we could take a reading.
Another test on oven elements was to touch them so you knew they were working.
 
builder22 said:
Hmm...suppose so.....you'd never say 'that's an E#' if someone pointed to an F on a keyboard tho but you need to say sharp or flat something if you were asked to name any of the black keys
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It all depends what key you’re in. If you’re unlucky enough to be playing in F# minor it’s an E# as it’s a raised 7th.
 
The earth pin of a UK plug actually opens two small doors to allow the other two pins to be inserted. Without the earthing pin you can't insert the other two pins. That's why it is longer than the others.
 
On toasters - there is (was?) one that would satisfy our lust for consistency in preparation:


It does have some drawbacks, especially with regards to safety. Also they are not made anymore and expensive if you can get one.
 
Blue160 said:
It all depends what key you’re in. If you’re unlucky enough to be playing in F# minor it’s an E# as it’s a raised 7th.
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it’s a minor 7th and it would just be E in F# minor! Unless you mean harmonic minor...or melodic...
F# Major you’d use E#...but it’s because you only use one of each letter when spelling scales...

enough of this tho :p
 
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SexyGreyFox said:
Another interesting fact about toasters
You can't electrocute yourself by putting a knife in because the wires are hidden and all you're touching is an element.
One of our tests with toaster elements (and cooker elements) was to put a metal rod onto them so we could take a reading.
Another test on oven elements was to touch them so you knew they were working.
Click to expand...

Hmm, experience tells me something different :p

But the element in the toaster only gets hot because electricity is flowing through it, so if you touch it with something metal (and you aren't insulated from making a circuit) you will get a shock.
 
I’ve never tried sticking a knife in a toaster :p
Kinda assumed the ‘stick a knife in a toaster’ thing was just from ages ago before elf and safety and now they’re coated in ceramic? like an oven element/hob etc
 
Mr.Cookie said:
I've long been able to wire a plug but it was only when my wife said the blue wire goes bottom left because it starts bl, the brown bottom right because it starts br and what left goes in the middle.
I have no idea if this was deliberately done but it did blown my little mind :D
Click to expand...

checjb said:
It was only a month or so past that I discovered that the little paper slip on the back of a new plug not only shows the wiring orientation but also shows the lengths of each wire and the amount of insulation that should be stripped off.
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B(L)ue Left. B(R)own Right

E(A)rth Ahead

Thats how I was always taught

I've NEVER read those paper instructions... Just assumed it was, where the wires go......... The other info is really useful
 
Freakbro said:
Hmm, experience tells me something different :p

But the element in the toaster only gets hot because electricity is flowing through it, so if you touch it with something metal (and you aren't insulated from making a circuit) you will get a shock.
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It's how we tested 1000s upon 1000s upon 1000s in the Russell Hobbs cribs, touching with the metal rod to get a reading never made one blow up or electrocute us.
An element is made of an inside and an outside and the wires that go on them are housed in the body, touching the live inside the body would definitely make you fly across the electrical crib, I've done it several times with cooker elements.
Perhaps other manufacturers toasters are made differently!!!
 
Hades said:
The earth pin of a UK plug actually opens two small doors to allow the other two pins to be inserted. Without the earthing pin you can't insert the other two pins. That's why it is longer than the others.
Click to expand...

It wasn't always like that. The reason the design changed is because people had got into the habit of not bothering with a plug or multi gang extension and instead just stripped the brown and blue wires to bare copper and cut the earth off. They then sandwiched the brown and blue (in no particular order) into the socket with the plug of another device to create a makeshift extension. This meant that the plugless device had live bare copper exposed, no fuse, wrong polarity etc.

That's why modern plug tops also have a black insulated portion at the base of the 2 live conductor pins. :)
 
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