"What does this button do?" is surely a staple question among many here (one tends not to get into all this without at least a minor tendency towards curiosity) and many times that leads to odd outcomes. Share some of yours.
Might as well go first.
So it is many years ago and I am in a swimming pool with my dad and siblings. Weekend during school holidays and reasonably hot day so it is packed and I am waiting in line for... something (probably going to dive in). Anyway there is this slide button (from the bottom a vertical slide with large area to do it in) that I poke a little bit, move on, poke a little bit more, move on, poke a little bit more.
All of a sudden mass alarm. Everybody is getting out of the pools/being told to get out of the pool (and it was truly packed, we are talking hundreds of people now waiting around the side shivering and wondering what is going on) while lifeguards are peering into the bottom of the pool trying to figure out who is in trouble and none of them know (I guess normally one would send their own signal saying help me here).
Turns out nobody was. I had hit the person in trouble alarm and as this was at best the early 2000s then concepts like zone alarms were apparently not a thing, especially not in random small town leisure centre swimming pool.
They figured out which was the offending alarm but not who had done the deed. We were all still lined up (was not in the pool when it happened) so got a "we know it was one of you, don't do it again". I would like to say I was the true burgeoning scientist and "observe, test, repeat" was at the heart of my being but no. Went back to swimming and then went home. My dad somehow knew it was me (I suppose you don't inherit from strangers) and at some level found it amusing but was reminded of the incident for many years after that.
Might as well go first.
So it is many years ago and I am in a swimming pool with my dad and siblings. Weekend during school holidays and reasonably hot day so it is packed and I am waiting in line for... something (probably going to dive in). Anyway there is this slide button (from the bottom a vertical slide with large area to do it in) that I poke a little bit, move on, poke a little bit more, move on, poke a little bit more.
All of a sudden mass alarm. Everybody is getting out of the pools/being told to get out of the pool (and it was truly packed, we are talking hundreds of people now waiting around the side shivering and wondering what is going on) while lifeguards are peering into the bottom of the pool trying to figure out who is in trouble and none of them know (I guess normally one would send their own signal saying help me here).
Turns out nobody was. I had hit the person in trouble alarm and as this was at best the early 2000s then concepts like zone alarms were apparently not a thing, especially not in random small town leisure centre swimming pool.
They figured out which was the offending alarm but not who had done the deed. We were all still lined up (was not in the pool when it happened) so got a "we know it was one of you, don't do it again". I would like to say I was the true burgeoning scientist and "observe, test, repeat" was at the heart of my being but no. Went back to swimming and then went home. My dad somehow knew it was me (I suppose you don't inherit from strangers) and at some level found it amusing but was reminded of the incident for many years after that.