while chuck norris' beard may be hiding not a chin, but a third fist, his stubble ain't got nuthin on tin whiskers. tin whiskers are kicking electrical components' butts. from tivo to the flight control systems of the space shuttle, "green" electronics- named for their lead-free components, have consisted of tin and tin alloys to harness electricity for years. problem is: when tin is stressed, either through electrical heating and cooling, vibration, or tension, over time the plating shoots out a metal 'whisker' much like that of a human hair. once these hairs make contact with other components, zap! your iPod is cooked. this could explain why our favorite toys just one day up and quit.
engineers at nasa are working round-the clock to find solutions to these phenomena.
3 comments:
Now I know what happened to my last refrigerator; the whiskers from the meat-cake-pudding on the back of the shelf must have shorted it out. Blast, moms cooking!
mmm, nothing like Mom's famous meat-cake-pudding...kinda sounds like something they eat over there in england. i think they make mention of it in that pink floyd song-i forget the name, but the lyric goes something like..."how can you have more pudding, when you haven't finished your meat-cake-pudding?"
“How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_Brick_in_the_Wall
Post a Comment