Last week, the battery in my car key was dying and it chose to give out when I needed to unlock my car to get to a lecture.  Though I could open the car manually, it would set off the car alarm time and time again, which did me no good.  I tried to get in and just start my car, but it didn’t work and the engine wouldn’t react.  I called up Panda to try to figure out a solution and eventually decided to go back to my internship to see if the guys there had suggestions (or could possibly take me to a local shop to buy a battery).

I got a screwdriver to open up the casing and at least see what size the battery was.  One of the guys took it and decided he’d try something radical – he started to rub it vigorously on the carpet!  Trying to work on the static electricity generated to create a charge strong enough for it to work for just one more push, he went on for a few seconds, then quickly replaced the battery.  I pressed a button and the red light lit to indicate it was working, so he and the other intern started to yell at me to run to my car to unlock it.  Nervous and anticipatory, I ran out as fast as I could and cautiously pressed it when I felt close enough for it to work.

Miraculously, I heard the double-beeping that indicated my car was unlocked!  What a genius move!  I was really excited about it, since it was such a great application of the physical sciences!  It’s like when you take a potato to power something and it’s a really cool science experiment because it works and it’s so simple too.  In this day and age of technology, it’s great to see that there are still some less high-tech ways of solving problems.  It took a certain creativity to even consider the idea (which was borne of desperation).  As my tagline says, “because inspiration doesn’t wait,” after all.  Crazy, huh?  🙂