Magic Smoke

The magic smoke theory is a running in joke among Electrical Engineers as well as computer programmers and technicians. According to the magic smoke theory, there is a little bit of magic smoke in every integrated circuit, resistor, transistor and other components which makes the device work. This magic smoke is put in at the factory, however sometimes it can come out in such catastrophic circumstances as high voltages being fed to the part or excessive current. The proof of the theory is, of course, that once the "magic" smoke has been seen to leave the component, it no longer works, thus demonstrating that the smoke was what made it work in the first place. A variant on the magic smoke theory is the idea that the magic smoke also travels through wires, and in the event that wires get too hot, they too will leak some magic smoke, making the circuit no longer work.

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