Rocket Scientists and cars

[niehizzie]

So I guess i finally learned some mechanical stuff, even though it had close to nothing to do with rocket science. I go to PRSE to drop off chris for the day, and I go in to get a paper. I come back out and try to start my car, it won't start. And after a few trys, I am pissed. So I talk to my branch chief, and he sends out an email to everyone in the branch to try to get people to help. First, Tri helps by trying to get me jumped. Didn't help. We got a sweet multimeter, ones used to test batteries on rocket like things to test my battery. It read 12 V like it should, so that was really weird. Others offer suggestions of what it could be, but we decided to wait for a real mechanic (who was out for the day) to take a look at it. Finally, THE captain was like, let me handle this. Fixing up cars apparently was one of his many other talents. We went to area 114 to get tools. We have wrenches and screws and the multimeter again. This time, Bill suggested to read the multimeter while starting the car, and it read like 4V, which is not enough to start it. So he plays around with it, and we determine that the battery is close to dead and the wire connecting it to the starter is corroded. Well we needed to get the car to auto zone to get this taken care of, so we went to the chem lab for a temporary fix. Yes, I had cool rocket lab chemicals in my batter/engine to get it like 30 miles down the road. We got the battery and Bill even installed it, and now it works great.
Moral of story, don't take your car to an auto mechanic, take it to a rocket scientist!!