Saturday, February 20, 2021

Concept Alarm (Not)

Now this is interesting. I received components yesterday to build a few examples of my new design for an alarm. I intended to create a "concept" alarm -- built into a brick -- so simple that it would need no instructions. The theory of the alarm is one thing. It is perfect -- if perfect means functioning perfectly. But there was a problem with the brick. I realised that, if someone snipped the wires of the alarm, and hooked it up differently, it could work up a temperature of well over 100 °C. My simple alarm could become a simple bomb. OBSERVATION: Notice that the theory of bricks has nothing to do with the theory of alarms -- and this is the problem with theory. What works in a closed system may be disastrous in an open system.

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