600,000 millivolts

[gmichael225]

So a friend just sent me a screenshot from David Cronenberg's "Videodrome", in which a sign appears saying:

DANGER
600000 MILLIVOLTS
KEEP OUT

Their question was - why wouldn't it just say 600 volts?
I don't have a good answer for them - do you?

[BravoV]

Their question was - why wouldn't it just say 600 volts?
I don't have a good answer for them - do you?

I'm guessing, the answer is, you are not worthy enough (technical wise) to get near and able to read the warning label clearly if you don't understand what that warning sign means.

[Halcyon]

Because 600000 is more than 600? (Ignore the unit of measure.) Maybe it sounded scarier to those who don't understand basic electrical theory.

Red sign + Big number = No touchy

[gmichael225]

Red sign + Big number = No touchy

I thought maybe that, but that seems over-thought for a movie set!
I was hoping it might be something more esoteric!

[Halcyon]

I suppose it serves that purpose too. Only a certain person would pick up on that.

It reminds me of another odd sign in the movie Wargames...



Was urinating in common areas of a base a problem in the US Defence Forces?

[Brumby]

My vote goes to a prop master having (at least) a modicum of knowledge on the subject, a sense of humour ... and being a little mischievous.

It would just go over the head of most people ...

[AlfBaz]

Simple. Electronic cards in a rack above an osciloscope. Blokes there probably only ever work with mV signals so prabably better just incase they thought it was 600mV

[sokoloff]

Ex-colleague had a magnet on his cube along this line:



He used it to tell who had a clue of the basics and a sense of humor...

[GlennSprigg]

To Halcyon....  Yep, better than seeing  6x10² Volts, though was prob. taking the piss 

[rstofer]

I suppose it serves that purpose too. Only a certain person would pick up on that.

It reminds me of another odd sign in the movie Wargames...

Was urinating in common areas of a base a problem in the US Defence Forces?

Speaking of War Games - did you catch the bit about the condom recycling factory?

One of our techs had a red sign that warned of 1,000,000 Ohms.

[Red Squirrel]

That's funny, I guess it sounds more "technical" without being wrong. 

[@rt]

Is the whole setup nonsense?
They vaguely look like valve footprints on the cards, but even 70’s 9 pin valves couldn’t fit through the slot.
Could that card even move 600V around?
and what's happening with the card edge connector facing the actor’s head? It has at least one trace/wire lead out to it.

[Kleinstein]

Kind of reminds me to the 60.000 mHz CPU (Coffee Processing Unit).

[dmills]

I knew someone who worked developing mobile phone power stages back in the day.

His manager was giving him earache because against a target output of 3dBW, he was only managing 0dBW on the prototype....

He got called into a meeting with his bosses grandboss about this "Disastrous failure to get the power amp to perform" where he said that "Against a target of 63dBuW the amplifier is currently managing 60dBuW", He was congratulated on being so close to the target.

Regards, Dan.

[T3sl4co1l]

A few years later, jury duty again. The judge states that the defendant is charged with possession of 1,700 milligrams of cocaine. It was found on his body, he was arrested, and he is now on trial. This time, after the Q&A is over, the judge asks us whether there are any questions we’d like to ask the court, and I say, “Yes, Your Honor. Why did you say he was in possession of 1,700 milligrams of cocaine? That equals 1.7 grams. The ‘thousand’ cancels with the ‘milli-’ and you get 1.7 grams, which is less than the weight of a dime.” Again I’m out on the street.

- Neil deGrasse Tyson

Tim

[Brumby]

I knew someone who worked developing mobile phone power stages back in the day.

His manager was giving him earache because against a target output of 3dBW, he was only managing 0dBW on the prototype....

He got called into a meeting with his bosses grandboss about this "Disastrous failure to get the power amp to perform" where he said that "Against a target of 63dBuW the amplifier is currently managing 60dBuW", He was congratulated on being so close to the target.

Regards, Dan.

I had to read that a second time to 'get' it.  I guess I shouldn't be trying to think when it's coming up to 3am.

[GerryBags]

Is the whole setup nonsense?
They vaguely look like valve footprints on the cards, but even 70’s 9 pin valves couldn’t fit through the slot.
Could that card even move 600V around?
and what's happening with the card edge connector facing the actor’s head? It has at least one trace/wire lead out to it.

I think the silver things are pull-out handles, the wire looks like it runs to a light down the bottom of the front panels. The radial traces could be below one of the early IC's that came in a can package.

[rsjsouza]

To me they were just showing off their 6-¹/₂ meters used to measure the voltages on that rack.   

600000mV has much more resolution than those puny pedestrian 600V signs. 

[@rt]

I think the silver things are pull-out handles, the wire looks like it runs to a light down the bottom of the front panels. The radial traces could be below one of the early IC's that came in a can package.

What reason would 600V be on a solid state logic board? or even 70’s miniwatt valves?
It sound more like a secondary winding for the tube inside the CRO if anything real.

[David Hess]

We know from a different scene that Harlan, the character in Videodrome, is a joker so it does not surprise me at all that he would make a sign like that.

"Home of the buccaneers, pirates of the high frequencies."

That Tektronix 526 vectorscope in the rack has a +500 volt unregulated supply which might reach 600 volts.  I thought there might be some Nuvistors in the rack he is messing with but they only ran up to 300 volts.  600 volts is not what I would expect from a receiving tube.

[Cyberdragon]

We know from a different scene that Harlan, the character in Videodrome, is a joker so it does not surprise me at all that he would make a sign like that.

"Home of the buccaneers, pirates of the high frequencies."

That Tektronix 526 vectorscope in the rack has a +500 volt unregulated supply which might reach 600 volts.  I thought there might be some Nuvistors in the rack he is messing with but they only ran up to 300 volts.  600 volts is not what I would expect from a receiving tube.

Unless it's electronically stepping down an input or something (instead of with just resistors). It might also be handling voltages for other equipment that requires high voltage.

[ebastler]

So a friend just sent me a screenshot from David Cronenberg's "Videodrome", in which a sign appears saying:

DANGER
600000 MILLIVOLTS
KEEP OUT

Their question was - why wouldn't it just say 600 volts?
I don't have a good answer for them - do you?

Because it's in a movie? A fantasy/scence fiction movie, which aims to put you off balance?
Just guessing...

[ogden]

Easy. You want your office/lab clean but don't want your long term measurements or just equipment to be trashed - so you put scary signs on sensitive and/or expensive equipment to keep personnel of cleaning services away from it.

[Falkra]

600V, 600 000 millivolts : more letters, more danger. Visually, for a movie. 

[Brumby]

This is a sign I would sometimes like to put up.....