kaib18•29d ago

TIL my old 9-volt battery testing method was completely useless

For years I would touch a 9-volt to my tongue to see if it was dead. Felt a tingle meant it was good, right? Last week my buddy who fixes guitars told me that only tells you if there's any charge left at all, not if it's actually strong enough to power something. He showed me by testing a battery that tingled my tongue but barely lit up a multimeter at 4 volts. Now I keep a cheap voltage tester in my junk drawer. Has anyone else been using this dumb method their whole life?

2 comments

2 Comments

hill.jade29d agoMost Upvoted

Felt a tingle meant it was good" - yeah I learned that one the hard way too. Tongue test is basically useless.

gavinh2629d ago

Yeah but I gotta disagree a little bit here. I think the tingle test has its place if you know what you're actually looking for. Thing is, most people mistake a straight up burn or chemical taste for a tingle and that's where they mess up. With certain mushrooms like Amanita muscaria, that slight numbness on your tongue is an actual indicator of potency. But with regular cubes, you're really just tasting the dried material and maybe some leftover substrate. That tingling sensation you get is probably just your brain playing tricks on you because you've read about it somewhere.