I switched on BBC
Breakfast this morning, to watch a presenter drop two AA batteries on to the studio floor,
to see if they bounced. I was delighted my TV Licence Fee was being put to good
use.
There was method
to her madness. She wasn’t just filling time. It was meant to be a way of finding out if they had any charge left, though I still think putting
them in a device and then seeing if it works is preferable.
An empty battery bounces
and a full one doesn’t: that was the crux of the item. I won’t bore you with
the science; partly because I can’t remember it, and partly because it didn’t
work. When she tried it, they both bounced identically, wasting five minutes of
Charlie Stayt, Naga Munchetty and 6.8 million viewers’ lives in the process.
Why didn’t she test it privately first, thus saving a lot of embarrassment? She even advised us not
to try it ourselves, in case they leaked. So, if the theory worked,
we weren’t meant to use it.
If nothing else,
she unwittingly inspired Ephgrave’s Egg Test:
If it breaks, it’s an egg. If it bounces,
don’t eat it.