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Re: Video NOW: Discovery Channel, Cable ZAPPED

Original poster: "Mark Broker" <mbroker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

On Fri, 03 Jun 2005 01:54:23 -0600, Tesla list <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Original poster: "keith" <keith.cc@xxxxxxxxxxx>

I saw part one tonight and wasn't terribly impressed with it - I'm still
an hv beginner but even I picked up on multiple semantic/factual errors
- saying voltage can 'flow', using 'electricity' in place of 'current',
and citing the 30kv/cm breakdown electric field value for point
electrode discharges, which I'm pretty sure you can't do. I know it's
meant for lay audiences, but errors like those irritate me when I've
expended so much effort trying to learn electricity the 'right' way and
get past such common misconceptions. The woman they had who was
allegedly working on her phd in electrical engineering also did not seem
to know much more about electricity than the stunt man. There were,
however, some good shots of a fairly large coil operating, an impressive
demonstration of electrical-storm independent atmospheric electric
charge, and some glimpses of a large pulse discharge capacitor
bank/charging apparatus. Just my (unsolicited) opinion.

Keith C 

We were ranting about this last night already on our forums.... :p

I was forced to turn it off partway through: I found the rhetoric and dialog to be vastly more annoying than the egregious scientific errors. My wife, in the room down the hall, was wondering at one point why I was screaming technobabble at the TV! A welded joint does not need to withstand "high voltage," it needs to withstand "high current;" the net electric field inside a conductor is ZERO; voltage does not flow; etc....

I would be surprised if either the woman was a degreed engineer of ANY flavor, let alone a masters-level electrical engineer, or the guy with glasses was a neurosurgeon (or perhaps just scientist/researcher). If indeed they weren't, certainly Discovery could have gotten more attractive acting talent, like on MythBusters. :o)

I will probably send them a polite-o-gram tonight pontificating upon their egregious errors and kindly suggesting they consult "experts," like us (many of us wouldn't even charge a consultation fee!), before they do their next science side-show.

Best regards,

Mark Broker
The Geek Group