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Scientific minds needed to solve the mystery of our times!

  
 
The Apple-Picker
22:42 / 25.11.02
A compadre on another board gave me permission to repost his query--one, because it's entertaining (though some say I'm easily entertained), and two, because maybe somebody here can answer the question--

My kids have two pet rats, and (shudder) they like to amuse themselves by placing a rat on my shoulder, especially if I'm at the computer, and watching it crawl on me. And these damn fuzzy creatures like me, they like to burrow in my hair, skitter up and down my arms as I type and I think they know I'll break down and hand them a snack to nibble on as they chill on my shoulder watching me do my thing as I work at the computer. I'm getting used to them, I guess, I even like them a little bit now. (Don't tell the kids.)

I have a lamp on my desk. It is one of those 3-way "touch" lamps. Touch the base, stem or any of the metal in its shade and it will change brightness or turn off/on. Now, the cat will often sit near the lamp, swishing its tail back and forth, nonchalantly watching as the light goes on-bright-brighter-brightest-off with each touch of her tail. She does this to annoy me, I know, but that is besides the matter. She can touch this lamp with any part of her body and the lamp does its thing and responds. Now, sometimes, when I am being visited by one of my new rat friends, it will stray from my arms, walk across the keyboard and onto the desk and explore everything on it. Of course, it wasn't long before this shiny lamp caught its interest and the rat decided to investigate it by crawling all over it. And here I was, getting ready to chuckle when it would startle (because it doesn't take much to make a rat startle) when it touched the lamp and made the light change. But the lamp did nothing. Nada. So, I touched it. The lamp did its thing and got brighter, so the lamp wasn't broke. The rat was chilling there, front paws on the lamp, and I touched the rats tail, my fingers far from the lamp itelf. The lamp worked like a charm. The rat could not make the lamp work by itself, but by me just touching the rat, the lamp worked. I went and got the other rat, and same results.

So, what I would like to know... what is up with that?? My touch makes the lamp work, the cat, even with just a brush of the hair of her tail, can make the lamp work... Anyone know why the rat's touch doesn't make the lamp respond?

Some extra information: this guy also has a little dwarf hamster that is smaller than any rat that he has, and the hamster can turn the light on, brighter, and off. So, you need to be able to account for that, too.
 
 
w1rebaby
22:47 / 25.11.02
If the rat's sitting on the lamp then it won't be conducting a current away, so it won't turn on. I think.

Otherwise, it may be one of those insulating rubber rats. They can be very lifelike, to the point of moving around and being cute.
 
 
The Return Of Rothkoid
22:53 / 25.11.02
How does a Touch Lamp work? (Same thing, from HowStuffWorks.)

Seems that the rat just doesn't conduct electricity as well as you, the hamster or the cat, so the sensing bit of the lamp doesn't think there's anything on it.

At least, that's what I can glean from that page. MC might be better to ask.
 
 
Linus Dunce
23:04 / 25.11.02
I think we should ask the hamster a few questions as well. I reckon it's been licking its paws deliberately to confuse the issue. Wouldn't surprise me if the whole thing was a set-up: "Ooh, so a wheel ain't good enough for the smarty-pants human -- he has to play with a compuuuuter, does he?"
 
 
The Apple-Picker
00:16 / 26.11.02
Someone wondered about the conductivity of rats vs. hamsters and suggested that the owner of the rats use a Q-tip and put some water on the rats paws and then let him touch the lamp. He did it. Lamp still didn't work.

Okay--so how's come the rat can't conduct electricity as well as we uprights and his hamster buddy.

Mordant! We need you!
 
 
The Return Of Rothkoid
01:01 / 26.11.02
Perhaps the fur on the rat has greater insulating properties than that of the hamster: there might be more skin in contact with the metal to take up the current?
 
 
gravitybitch
02:09 / 26.11.02
Did the rat owner put the water on the front or the back paws? Or both?

This is a puzzler!

(I think I'd be tempted to experiment with moistening the rat's tail for more surface area than the hind paws, and insure good contact with the base of the lamp by applying a small dab of peanut butter.)
 
 
fluid_state
04:17 / 26.11.02
hmmm, water, electricity, and rats. And people say the internet is a bad influence...
 
 
w1rebaby
10:39 / 26.11.02
Maybe rats, living in urban environments and prone to chewing on power cables, have been naturally selected to be less conductive than hamsters, who don't do that sort of thing so often. Hamsters die from pretty much anything, anyway.

Okay, that doesn't make much sense given that there's only been power in urban environments for at the most a few decades. But... maybe God made them insulators.

Is the rat wearing rubber gloves?
 
 
8===>Q: alyn
11:14 / 26.11.02
Everyone knows that rats of creatures of darkness. Rats, being eldritch invaders born of a plane of Lovecraftian horror -- yes, even cuddly pet rats -- are only partially real and therefore haven't enough life-force to effect the lamp. I suspect the author will finad that his bat, his dire wolf, and his unibrowed neighbor who clings to walls all fail to light the lamp as well.
 
 
The Apple-Picker
11:23 / 26.11.02
Hm. I don't think he's going to be satisfied with these answers....
 
 
Persephone
11:27 / 26.11.02
It says on that link that oil is an insulator. If you dip your finger in oil & touch the lamp, it won't light. So maybe a rat has oil on its skin?

Husb has one of those touch lamps. Now I want a rat.

(I'm going to try the lamp with one of the cats.)
 
 
Dances with Gophers
11:43 / 26.11.02
Perhaps it is deliberate ploy by the rat to mess with your friends mind?
 
 
grant
13:01 / 26.11.02
I don't believe the hamster actually changed the light by itself. I think someone held the the hamster up and touched the light with it, making the hamster, in effect, part of the conductive human, and thus able to flip the electro-sensitive switch.
 
 
Linus Dunce
14:26 / 26.11.02
Oh no, the hamster knows what it's doing. It's so mauve.
 
 
The Apple-Picker
14:35 / 26.11.02
You just don't want to believe, grant. It threatens your oh so shaky conception of this explainable world. You don't want to consider the possibility that this rat was born on a plane of Lovecraftian horror.
 
 
Dances with Gophers
14:40 / 26.11.02
Was the hampster conspiring with the rat, thats what i want to know...
 
 
Saveloy
14:50 / 26.11.02
Bugger the lamp; when do we get a hamster that lights up when you touch it - that's the real issue here, isn't it? That's the question we've all been stumbling towards. I suspect once that is answered, all the rest will fall into place, or at least won't seem very important any more.
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
16:13 / 26.11.02
I'm buggered if I can work it out. So far we seem to have ruled out size and probably skin conductivity. I'm guessing that the rat wasn't touching another surface, just the lamp itself. That would explain why having a person touch the rat made the lamp light.

And Saveloy-- while you're waiting for that hamster, check out Alba the luminous bunny.
 
 
bitchiekittie
16:51 / 26.11.02
'possums are so cute
 
 
gridley
19:27 / 26.11.02
I bet a possum could work that light.
 
 
w1rebaby
20:12 / 26.11.02
Possums can do anything.
 
 
The Return Of Rothkoid
21:38 / 26.11.02
When was the last time you saw a possum drive a ditch-digger? Eh?
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
21:56 / 26.11.02
Don't be silly. Possums have people to do things like that.
 
 
The Return Of Rothkoid
22:10 / 26.11.02
So technically, their minions can do anything?

That's what I'm saying. Not possums.
 
 
w1rebaby
22:21 / 26.11.02
They can. They just don't want to.
 
 
grant
14:34 / 27.11.02
Maybe a possum was touching the hamster.
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
16:48 / 27.11.02
Could you show us where on the doll the possum touched the hamster?
 
 
Tezcatlipoca
12:32 / 28.11.02
Hmmm...this is a long shot, but this post mentions rodents leaving a tiny trail of, normally undetectable, urine behind them as they move. As everyone who has ever had that unpleasant experience with a full bladder, a country walk, and an electric fence knows, the stuff conducts electricity like you wouldn't believe. Perhaps this invisible trail is longer and larger than we think, and so at some point along its length it’s connected to an electrical charge. Maybe rats don’t leave said trail, or that they take care not to, thusly making them significantly less conductive than their brethren?
 
  
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