Editing 3106: Farads

{{comic
| number    = 3106
| date      = June 23, 2025
| title     = Farads
| image     = farads_2x.png
| imagesize = 677x253px
| noexpand  = true
| titletext = 'This HAZMAT container contains radioactive material with activity of one becquerel.' 'So, like, a single banana slice?'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created recently by one Katal. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
This comic shows Cueball showing off several items that (he claims to) compose approximately one of a given unit, with Megan and White Hat reacting appropriately. The first three – meters, pounds, and volts – are all very common units that everyday people will regularly encounter, and so receive minimal reaction.

Most household batteries are around 1.5V, although 1V batteries do exist. As a battery is discharged, the outputted voltage slowly decreases. Since one volt is below what most batteries market themselves as, the battery could be close to being completely drained and should be recharged. If the battery is supposed to operate at higher voltages, it might indicate that the battery had suffered a deep discharge. In this case, the battery may have suffered permanent damage to its capacity to charge and special care should be taken to safely recharge it.

However, 1 {{w|farad}} is really goddamn big. In common use, even millifarads are quite large, and most consumer electronics use at most a nanofarad. A 1-farad capacitor is considered a supercapacitor. Cueball claiming to have a 1-farad capacitor elicits panic from Megan and White Hat, who not-unreasonably ask why the hell he's carrying it around and brandishing it in front of them.

Capacitance (C) is the ratio between charge (coulombs or amp-seconds) and electromotive force (V, volts or joules per coulomb). Weight (pounds or newtons) is the ratio between gravitational potential energy (joules) and height (meters). The stone weighs 1 pound or 4.45 newtons. If the 1-farad capacitor is charged to 1 volt, it will hold 1/2 C * V<sup>2</sup> or 0.5 joules. If its discharge is used to raise the 4.45&nbsp;N stone, it will throw the stone 1/8.9 m or about 11 centimeters. This is a hammer blow.

A 1-farad capacitor charged by a 9-volt battery will throw the stone 10 meters high, a sledgehammer blow. To prevent static electricity from building lethal charge, unused supercapacitors are usually stored and transported with a "keeper", a steel or aluminum bar shorting the terminals. A 0.1-farad capacitor intermittently shorted with a screwdriver makes "lightning flashes" that will illuminate a theater.

The title text resumes more ordinary units, albeit on a less common topic. A becquerel amounts to one radioactive decay per second on the atomic level, which is a really low level of radioactivity. As observed, the material in question could be a single slice of a banana (primarily due to the decay of trace potassium-40 in the total potassium it contains). Hence, it is both impractical and unnecessary to contain it inside a hazmat container unless the material is dangerous for other reasons (such as corrosiveness or flammability). In comparison, the human body itself [https://web.archive.org/web/20200220103556/https://radioactivity.eu.com/site/pages/Activity_Doses.htm has an activity of 8000 Bq].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
: [Cueball holds a stick while talking with Megan and White Hat]
: Cueball: This stick is one meter long.
: Megan: Cool.
: White Hat: That's a nice stick.
:
: [Cueball holds a smallish rock]
: Cueball: This rock weighs one pound.
: Megan: I'd believe it.
: White Hat: Looks like a normal rock.
:
: [Cueball holds a small battery]
: Cueball: This battery is one volt.
: Megan: Seems fine.
: White Hat: Might need a recharge.
:
: [Cueball holds a capacitor while Megan and White Hat panic]
: Cueball: This capacitor is one farad.
: Megan: <b><em>Aaaaa! Be careful!!</em></b>
: White Hat: Put it down!!

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>