14-year-old Texas boy arrested for bringing homemade clock

[lilpixieofterror]

Oh, and all the praise little Ahmed is getting from NASA, Google, MIT, Twitter, and other major tech companies is for doing something as simple as removing the internals of a clock and putting them in a pencil case. Here's someone demonstrating the process in a 21-second video:

I was doing stuff like that, at that age too. At around that age, I even did a build a muti-meter project in one of my classes as a project (and it actually worked). I admit, I don't quite get the praising myself. It isn't anything extraordinary that other kids were not or are not doing.

[Cow Poke]

Wattage is voltage times Amperage.

I think I'm having a Vuja Day

Well, power (watts) is amps (current) times volts.

[Cow Poke]

You're right. I'm no expert in explosives of any type, but it wouldn't be that hard to turn an alarm clock into a trigger (I'm not going to say how to do this, but I can think of one way to accomplish this without much work involved).

In the old days, it was as easy as a minute hand moving to where it makes contact with a metal pin or something - totally mechanical. Another way (in cruder electronic clocks) is to tap the voltage that actuates the buzzer for the alarm.

[lilpixieofterror]

And very high frequency (like 10s of thousand cycle/s) has little or no effect, or so I've hertz.

Few times I've been bit by it, my fingers or hand have been number for a few minutes afterwords.

[Cow Poke]

Few times I've been bit by it, my fingers or hand have been number for a few minutes afterwords.

I almost cracked my sternum once over a shock. But it wasn't me who got shocked. I was looking over a guys shoulder as he reached into the back of a TV, telling him don't do that, and he got zapped, causing his arm to fly back, his elbow hitting me right in the chest bone. YEEEEEOOOOOCH!

[lilpixieofterror]

I think I'm having a Vuja Day

Yes you are and with a little algebra, you can figure out the amperage too (or cheat and use an ohms law calculator app).

[lilpixieofterror]

In the old days, it was as easy as a minute hand moving to where it makes contact with a metal pin or something - totally mechanical. Another way (in cruder electronic clocks) is to tap the voltage that actuates the buzzer for the alarm.

We don't want to tell people how to make triggers CP (although I was thinking along those lines myself).

[Cow Poke]

Yes you are and with a little algebra, you can figure out the amperage too (or cheat and use an ohms law calculator app).

Yeah, I used to have to do that for shop class - solve for watts, solve for amps, solve for volts..... way easier today with apps!

[Cow Poke]

We don't want to tell people how to make triggers CP (although I was thinking along those lines myself).

Anybody who understands that knows 10 ways to do it way better.

[rogue06]

I think I'm having a Vuja Day

The spellification Nazi don't no itz spelt "vuja de"

[Cow Poke]

The spellification Nazi don't no itz spelt "vuja de"

Well, poop a doop to you!

[lilpixieofterror]

Yeah, I used to have to do that for shop class - solve for watts, solve for amps, solve for volts..... way easier today with apps!

We had to do that in my basic electronics class too. Now if there's some reason I need to know what something else is; I just use an app.

[Cow Poke]

So, who was it that was castigating us for believing that the "invention" was a deconstructed clock, simply transferred to the metal pencil case? I mean, after all, Sam believes that, too! (now)

[rogue06]

Anybody who understands that knows 10 ways to do it way better.

Only 10? Back in the pre-9/11 world when I use to make a special, um, "firecracker" each New Years and Independence Day my favorite part was figuring out new ways to detonate the thing. I would rotate between electrical, chemical and mechanical methods just for the added challenge.

[klaus54]

Surely the burden of proof is on the accuser right?
So those accusing a 14 year old kid of intentionally making some kind of "fake bomb" or "movie bomb" or "hollywood bomb" ought to prove that? Right? Would you say that to his face?

Would you appreciate it if someone made that kind of accusation against you and/or your kid(s)?

Were you there?

Do you know what a fake bomb looks like?

And yes, if my kid were THIS stupid, I would expect him/her to be treated similarly.

Now, if my kid chewed a PopTart into the shape of gun and got suspended for two weeks, I would NOT be happy.

Geesh...