How To: Turn a pencil into an emergency light

Turn a pencil into an emergency light

You are stuck in the middle of nowhere and can't see a thing. Luckily you have pencil and your car battery. You can create 20 minutes of bright light using the graphite from a regular pencil, wired to the positive and negative of your car battery. Basically, the graphite serves as a bright filament for your emergency light. Follow along with this how-to video tutorial to learn the step by step process of turning a pencil into an emergency light.

Just updated your iPhone? You'll find new Apple Intelligence capabilities, sudoku puzzles, Camera Control enhancements, volume control limits, layered Voice Memo recordings, and other useful features. Find out what's new and changed on your iPhone with the iOS 18.2 update.

54 Comments

great, the mind is our best good.

in this guys case, his mind is his worst bad. all that trouble for a few minutes of light when he's got a car full of 12volt light bulbs. I guess there are different ideas of what the word "genius" truly means.

you cant use the car light to check under the hood man

smoojik was saying to use a bulb from (example) the dome light in the car and hooking it up to the battery instead of exposing yourself to potentially deadly carcinogenic fumes (lead in pencil) or blowing something up. Genius

No dumb f@ck the "core" of a pencil is graphite not lead ^Wannabe genius^

No, but you could use your dome light wired to the battery, using the duct tape that you keep in the car. Hence no need for the pencil in the first place.

I guess this would defeat the issue anyways, lol

genius. Does this work with all graphite?

thats dumb how is the head light going to help whats under the hood????

it is unclear

u kidding mw

that is so cool!

If i had light enough to extract the mine from the pencil i would have no need to use this trick but interesting anyway

weird

ya- I can see my wife doimg that! most likely will just use my cell phone as a light or remove a headlamp bulb and wire it to the battery!

cool little trick!

simple resistor setup, but i like the application. however, be careful with the car battery - pretty good shock potential!

Loaf tinks da light is pretty,but it scared his fleas away!!!

very very benifitial to every person who want to save time

fear not the ninjas are afoot......time it holds us in its grasp like the dentures of a koala...fear the denture koalas!!!!

hey.. ahhmm.. is this connected to Chemistry? or Bio Chemistry? please reply .. i really need it.. please?

yes, it must be bio-chemistry... because a pencil, wire and a battery are biological. Or, are they?!?! Whoa, my whole world is caving in around me.

What does Bio mean think on that.

uuhhmm.. can we use other materials than motor of the car?

larpi its chemistry

i would be afraid of gettin shocked

will it work with 4AA batteries instead on a car battery

Is it for graphite or lead? o.0

Graphite only.

the lead is graphite.

thats a graphite pencil and i dotn think you could see the battery anyway, if you could see taht u can see the problem lol

its no lighting up its on fire

Incorrect. It's driving off organic volatiles and water first, The heat and light are from ohmic heating.

I agree with most...if you can see the battery, you can see the problem...unless you have a flat tire..then I can see how this could work. Also, I bet it'd be good for getting a fire started without matches. :)

Instead of going through all the rigmorol of getting some wire, attaching it to the car battery, finding a pencil, biting the rubber off one end, attaching the wire to either end of the pencil blah blah blah...why not just sit in the passenger seat of your car, wind it back, laydown, crack one out and wait for the sun to rise - much better idea than potentially blowing your arms off, imagine what your mum would say - "How did it happen officer?" "well we think he was attempting some new sexual practice; similar to exphixiwanking, using a pencil and a car battery, basically your son was sick and now he's dead!" "Oh no, don't you think it was possible he was trying to make a light using the pencil and the battery?" "Don't be so bloody stupid!! who would ever think of that!!"

genius

it might be dangerous if you inhale the smoke..
i saw it smoking when lighting it up..

OK everyone... I have an even better idea! You have a huge 12v battery, some wire and an entire automobile at your disposal. What makes more sense? Using a pencil you found in the glove box and tearing it in half to salvage the graphite to hook it to the wires and get 20 minutes of toxic smoke with a bit of light... or, to pull out one of your tail-lite bulbs, hook it up and use it for 3 days straight without taking your life in your hands?

if you like, I could put together a video.

would the wires get hot or stay cool

Get hot.I made an oven and use a battery with some friends.Wires+electricity=hot wire

Can U Use Normal AA Or AAA Battery?

Great Suicidal technique

I laughed so hard when I watched this video. It's like, really? You obviously had enough light to 1) Find a pencil, 2) Somehow split it open and take the granite out, and 3) Actually attaching it to your car's battery...

I tried it and it does make a great firestarter but it only lasted less than a minute and there was not much light... Plus I did it in the garage with the door closed and I almost choked to death! Go with the bulb technic. AA batteries only put out 1.5 volts, so you would need about 10 of them wired in series... Try that in the dark!

this is tupid you could just use some wires and the car battery and some fire wood and build an fire that way you will have more light and last longer

, was interesting and fun to watch. Kinda mess up your car rip out the speaker wires etc... Would probly be a good idea to keep a flash light in your car if worried about breaking down at night lo,l then doing all that. Still coo,l I wanna try it but not going out to my car. Wonder if any house hold batteries will work?

Share Your Thoughts

  • Hot
  • Latest