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Colleague brought this chicken egg breeding device. Customer states: It went pop, then... nothing.

Simple enough, dead electrolytic. Looking at the failure mode, I couldn't believe it. The aluminum enclosure was ejected from under the plastic tubing/sleeve. Quite violently too.

I asked him and he said this is how he found it. The aluminum cap was rattling around inside. You can't pull the plastic tube off of the capacitor remains. I tried.

Only thing I can imagine is it got hot, which loosened the plastic and after it cooled down it shrank again.

Has anyone ever seen this magic trick?

Colleague brought this chicken egg breeding device. Customer states: It went pop, then... nothing. Simple enough, dead electrolytic. Looking at the failure mode, I couldn't believe it. The aluminum enclosure was ejected from under the plastic tubing/sleeve. Quite violently too. I asked him and he said this is how he found it. The aluminum cap was rattling around inside. You can't pull the plastic tube off of the capacitor remains. I tried. Only thing I can imagine is it got hot, which loosened the plastic and after it cooled down it shrank again. Has anyone ever seen this magic trick?

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[–] • 1 pt

It was a quantum failure. The capacitor experienced just the right physics to allow the aluminum can to quantum teleport right off the rest of the cap parts and reappear elsewhere in the device. This was clearly a flux capacitor and I recommend you replace it with a normal electrolytic capacitor to avoid this issue in the future.

[–] • 1 pt

That must be it! Sometimes the most simple explanation is the correct one. The can was phase shifted as explained in many Star Trek episodes.

In the future, I might inquire for your analyses on more issues that leave me stumped.

[–] • 0 pt

The can was phase shifted as explained in many Star Trek episodes.

It's unfortunate that the phase shift effect resulted in the aluminum shell reverting to its original phase after the teleportation. Had it remained in its phasing flux state, you would have had a piece of transparent aluminum on your hands. Not quite enough to safely transport whales through time to save the world from space whale probes but enough to get a few bucks for it on eBay. The fickle finger of fate in the quantum world just flipped you the bird.

[–] • 1 pt

You slay me, seriously. :) I see you got your Trek down pat. Good man.

The fickle finger of fate in the quantum world just flipped you the bird.

They make whole Marvel movies out of quotes like this. I see great things happening in your future.