ok.. so a long time ago we tried the you-tube mentos stuff and happily wasted time (and coke) in the office parking lot.. (of course this was after half assed attempts to mimic the experiments imperfectly.. given the typical office makeup, this ensured that we tried it with various other softdrinks, various other sweets and at one point even tried microwaving the drink cause roelof thought “the cold was ruining it”.)

So.. after briefly spotting something on youtube again it seemed only right that we waste more time and money in the interest of science..

How to save big on your battery bills!

OK.. so most remote controls / many gizmos make use of triple-A batteries.. They are the cutest of the penlighty ones. but i digress.. Now.. according to some arb site online, you can buy a pack of 16 for $9.99

This means it would cost 62c each. (they are rated as 1.5v)
Now we look at the square 9v batteries (online priced at 2 for $5.99).

Turns out if you take a pair of needle-nosed pliers to one of the 9v’ers, you get this:

Now.. a quick calc should show you that these 6 little guys are effectively 1.5v each. This effectively gives us a 12c saving per battery which would translate to 36c in my remote control.. i can almost feel my bank balance go up..

A note of warning tho.. deels points out that the plaster i needed due to sloppy plier-work should be deducted from the total savings..

-sigh- the path of science never runs smoothly..