Electrons are negatively charged, thus they flow to the positive. So long as the negative is grounded, a circuit is compete and thus the starter motor will run.
There you go, Adam; red to red, black to black, + to +, – to -.
Nope, positive touches positive, and negative to nega. They say the other one in toons sometimes so kids who might try it don’t do anything worse than opening the hood… or so I think, I’ve only heard the ground method on phineas and ferb.
My God, me too. I can never 100% remember whether red is positive or negative, and which color connects first on which car. I know red is positive in my head (I just googled it again), but it just LOOKS like a “negative” color! I’m not being grinchy, old lady, just inept… PLEASE ASK SOMEONE ELSE SO WE DON’T ALL DIE!!
The colors on the cables don’t matter…they’re just color coded so you can keep em straight. pick a color to use for positive and stick with it. Good connection order to keep your head straight and your eyebrows in place –
1. Positive good battery
2. Positive bad battery
3. Negative good battery
4. Connect the last one to some metal on the dead battery vehicle.
Same here–and ruined a pair of jumper cables in the process. The worst of it was they were still in the original bag that had the instructions printed on the outside of the bag. But I was in hurry, had thought I’d done it thousands of times, and it might have been twilight or dark.
Hooking up the cables to the battery and then holding a cable end in each hand is always a sure way to get the old eyeballs ajumpin’ if not flying thata’ way.
Though in my years of boosting this good battery/bad battery/ grounded metal crap has never really mattered. I know charging lead acid batteries produce hydrogen, but not before they’re charging, which is when you’re connecting them.
and the antenna is not grounded, you’ll just be trying to fry the pre-amps inside the receiver.
I recently tried to jump a friend’s car. I wasn’t successful, but at least I learned why later:
When you hook up the negative clip to your friend’s engine block (as the instructions say), MAKE SURE that it is clipped to an UNPAINTED part of the engine block.
Yeah – there’s often one or two engine lifting lugs which make great candidates for the last connection. Though on newer cars its often covered by a sea of plastic.
What, you don’t want to try jump starting a vehicle with two AK-47s?
“Look at ’em go!” That’s a nice old lady….
Well, if he hooks up the positive jump leads correctly, wouldn’t he be able to hook up the negative jump leads to the antennas and still jump the car?
And on a side note, would resuscitating a shark with a defibrillator be ‘jumping’ the shark?
wait, i thought it was negative to negative and positive to hull?
Don’t do that, battery acid is no joke. Negative is connected to the hull.
Electrons are negatively charged, thus they flow to the positive. So long as the negative is grounded, a circuit is compete and thus the starter motor will run.
There you go, Adam; red to red, black to black, + to +, – to -.
spoken like a true engineer… when every technician knows that an electrical charge is seeking ground. 🙂
Nope, positive touches positive, and negative to nega. They say the other one in toons sometimes so kids who might try it don’t do anything worse than opening the hood… or so I think, I’ve only heard the ground method on phineas and ferb.
Since no one else picked this one up, “jumping the shark” is one of the best lines I’ve ever read in comments. Arr, arr!
My God, me too. I can never 100% remember whether red is positive or negative, and which color connects first on which car. I know red is positive in my head (I just googled it again), but it just LOOKS like a “negative” color! I’m not being grinchy, old lady, just inept… PLEASE ASK SOMEONE ELSE SO WE DON’T ALL DIE!!
The colors on the cables don’t matter…they’re just color coded so you can keep em straight. pick a color to use for positive and stick with it. Good connection order to keep your head straight and your eyebrows in place –
1. Positive good battery
2. Positive bad battery
3. Negative good battery
4. Connect the last one to some metal on the dead battery vehicle.
Been there done that, I can never fully remember which is which, and one time I accidentally put positive to negative and the sparks flew!
Same here–and ruined a pair of jumper cables in the process. The worst of it was they were still in the original bag that had the instructions printed on the outside of the bag. But I was in hurry, had thought I’d done it thousands of times, and it might have been twilight or dark.
Hooking up the cables to the battery and then holding a cable end in each hand is always a sure way to get the old eyeballs ajumpin’ if not flying thata’ way.
I guess I get to be the pedant today.
“Off”? Off?
Something about the way the bugs are drawn … never mind.
If those “eyeballs” are electrocuted “off”, they’re not exactly balls, are they?
No, really, I just needed my morning moment of pedantry.
Connect the good battery last, match colours.
Though in my years of boosting this good battery/bad battery/ grounded metal crap has never really mattered. I know charging lead acid batteries produce hydrogen, but not before they’re charging, which is when you’re connecting them.
and the antenna is not grounded, you’ll just be trying to fry the pre-amps inside the receiver.
You should do stand up, Adam, I think you’d be good at it!
Except for my fear of public speaking.
Most men are one-man versions of the 3 Stooges when it comes to operating dangerous technology safely.
I recently tried to jump a friend’s car. I wasn’t successful, but at least I learned why later:
When you hook up the negative clip to your friend’s engine block (as the instructions say), MAKE SURE that it is clipped to an UNPAINTED part of the engine block.
If you clip it to a painted part, it won’t work.
Live and learn.
Yeah – there’s often one or two engine lifting lugs which make great candidates for the last connection. Though on newer cars its often covered by a sea of plastic.
OMG I’m in tears laughing at panel three. Nicely done, Adam.
Thanks. I like the complete stupidity of the second panel.
I usually end up opening the hood and staring at it for a while, then saying “try it now!”