this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2025
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Technology
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Man, I fucking love watching this guy. He’ll talk about the most niche things and I love learning about it. He inspired a presentation I gave on how rice cookers work
This morning, I told my brother I was watching YouTube. He said "what are you watching and, if it's not Technology Connections, why not?"
lmao. I have a brother who's a lot like me and loves to tinker (not too young that this is irresponsible though), so when i need to throw something on to keep him occupied while i work, i know Technology Connections is a safe bet.
That's awesome. With what does he tinker? Some sort of screenshot technology?
I'm the youngest in my family, so I've never really had the chance to guide someone's growth until relatively recently. I take a great amount of pride in directing my kid toward things that will expand their creativity and curiosity. Hopefully you enjoy doing the same for your younger brother!
I try to encourage him since all my tinkering was self taught. I know I’d appreciate having a guide or even just a friend to talk to about those ideas. And he definitely comes up with some ideas that help my own tinkering.
Right now he’s really into engineering and has this box that comes monthly that I paid for him that teaches him Engineering principles. I think it’s done by Mark Rober? Not really tinkering but He also likes making models for 3D printing and he’s been trying to get into Programming, unfortunately I think that curiosity keeps distracting him though.
That's awesome and a great gift.
What are the ideas?
He has a ton of ideas. Right now he’s gotten really into Robotics and specifically joined his local FIRST team. This gave him the idea to build a robot of his own. I’ve tried to support him but damn can those things get expensive fast
It's awesome that he has so much creativity and motivation! My wife was in FIRST way back again and I think my SIL met her husband through it. I was homeschooled, but probably would have loved it if I had gone to public school. Hopefully it's beneficial (if expensive) to you guys as well.
Didn't its founder invent the Segway or something? Then go on to drive one off a cliff ...
I could have sworn I remember hearing the founder died of Covid back when I was in FIRST myself, it’s possible I’m confusing him for someone else though.
Luckily the robotics team covers all the parts for their robot so he’s getting a bit of the experience
Well, the owner - not inventor - of Segway apparently did die riding one off of a cliff:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimi_Heselden
However, I don't see a reference to FIRST in his wiki page, so I must have been mixing things up. It looks like the inventor of the Segway (and founder of FIRST) is still alive:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Kamen
It would seem Woodie Flowers is who i'm thinking of. I'm glad the other two are alive though. It's a shame about the owner, but i also i feel like that death was easily avoidable
Thanks for following up!
And how do they work?
Short answer — the internal “switch” is held in the on position by a magnet. Magnets become much less effective when they get hot, and while there is still water in the cooker the maximum temperature will be 100C. Once all the water boils off the temperature quickly rises — but the magnets stop being able to attract the switch when they hit around 102 - 103C or so and release the switch, turning the machine off.
So all has is a switch connected to a magnet next to the bottom of the pot. That’s it. Physics does the rest.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curie_temperature I doubt they're using magnets, especially considering how hot they have to get to lose their magnetism as you suggest.
Most thermostats in electronics such as kettles and cookers use a bi-metallic strip inside, where the two metal layers expand at different rates. The contacts in the switch are physically pulled apart by the strip bending when the desired temperature is reached. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bimetallic_strip
responding to someone going "i researced and did an entire presentation on this thing" with "well wikipedia says you're wrong" is peak internet.
the answer was from a different person who made the presentation
accusing the wrong person is also peak internet
Not sure where they said they "did an entire presentation on this thing" or where they got their information from. I'm only adding some context to what I know of how thermostats work. I would gladly admit I'm wrong if provided with some evidence.
If you want a visual demonstration of a thermostat working here's a video.
https://youtu.be/eRnYp8foJks
(For context I don't mean to come across as one of those "well ackshually" asshats, I just like watching people take apart electronics (was also slightly obsessed with magnets as a kid. MANY hard drives were sacrificed to my curiosity lol).)
yeah we went over that in another sub-thread.
regarding the actual info, fittingly alec of technology connections has also made a video on rice cookers! it's a short one by his standards, but in case you're not able to watch:
rice cookers depend on the curie temperature of magnets rather than bimetallic strips because the way you want them to work is to pump full power into the pot until all water has boiled off, at which point they should instantly switch off to stop the rice from burning. a bimetallic strip bends over a range of temperatures, but the magnetic switch in the rice cooker snaps open the instant the target temperature is exceeded and doesn't automatically reset. that's the big one.
Oh nice one, that's kinda cool
See I thought the curie temperature was a 'one and done' sort of deal where you have to go through the process of remagnetizing the magnet after it had gone beyond that point.
it is, for permanent magnets. but for things attracted to permanent magnets, it's not. so the permanent magnet is shielded from the heat while the metal alloy piece in contact with the bowl is allowed to heat up.
Ahh that makes a lot more sense
Cheers for the clarification
They do the thing until the thingymajogger flips, obvs.
Funny you should ask https://youtu.be/RSTNhvDGbYI
I remember seeing him (or someone claiming to be him) here on lemmy after the big migration from the-place-we-don't-talk-about. Someone was not impressed by him and told that to his face, politely. Never noticed him around since.
He was on Mastodon for a bit but I think he didn't like the culture
He's still on the fediverse.
https://mastodon.social/@TechConnectify@mas.to/with_replies