ARWadsworth wibbled:

So what DIY experiments did you perform as a child? I know that one
regular poster deliberately electrocuted his sister.

Adam

Wiring a random transformer from the back of a valve TV to the mains. I knew
what it would do, but not which way! Measured 8V with my cheap and crappy
Radio Shack meter. I was lucky.

Tried my new 2A/10000-turn electromagnet on the colour TV to see how it bent
electron beams. Discovered the joy of inbuilt degaussing coils, about 50
times before my parents came back. Nearly Darwined by that one!

Lots of fund with pot.mang, pot.nitrate, and any reducer to hand. Tried
making gunpowder, and drying it in the gas oven...

Electrolysing water + salt direct from mains. That goes pop-ety-pop, a
lot...