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Old 05-21-2005, 06:49 PM
RetroHacker RetroHacker is offline
Electronics Accumulator
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Niskayuna, NY
Posts: 464
Quote:
Originally Posted by wa2ise
Careful! A pencil has a conductive core, namely the black part that does the writing. It's graphite, similar to carbon comp resistors. Not good for use around kilovolt high voltages.
Good point... Anoter fine example of me just needing to shut up... You're right - I hadn't thought about that. I had always used a lamp taped to the barrel from a plastic BIC pen, I guess when I posted I thought that "pencil" would also work. But yes, graphite is conductive, and while I'd hope that the amount of graphite in a pencil should act as a large enough a resistor to protect one from getting zapped(much), it's much safer to just ignore the things that I post

I like to think that I know what I'm talking about, but I guess I don't think about as much as I think... I think then therefore... Oh the hell with it. I'll shut up now.

-Ian
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