I ha e a Science Question, about a mysterious effect I have observed involving electricity.

[SchoolHomeVR]

Though this is called Ask an expert, I didn't see any sections that seemed appropriate to 'ask a general science question' this was the closest I could find... If I could find the Science Project suggestion area, I might of put it there, as the thing might be repeatable! I am an adult (but a Student forever,... )

HERE IT IS:

This very strange thing has happened to my 'Variable Switch' I bought from Amazon. I bought it it was normal, (I tested it on a Normal Light/dimmable LED Lightbulb...) It has a slider, and would go from Off Smoothly to On as one slide it. I bought it for a Turbo Fan that was too strong even on low. It worked (marginally well, but adequate...) for a month, then one day I woke up and the fan had overheated (turned out to be, from too little lubrication and some rust internally- I later cleaned, polished, oiled & fixed it).
The Dimmer Slider no longer works on the fan,. NOW It just makes it HUM!!! SO I thought it would work for my standard bedside light. I plugged the lamp in, turn it all the way up,.. AND INSTEAD OF SIMPLY TURNING ON,... THE BULB IS STROBING ON AND OFF! Not like a loose bulb, or loose wire, but with CLOCKWORK Quantized Precision!!! \
My question: Since the fan was ON but Not spinning (for an unknown period, likely less than an hour, perhaps only a couple minutes. I was sleeping when it stopped turning) COULD the Timing Capacitor, have had to send it's Pulses SOMEWHERE, sent them into the Variable Switch,.. and somehow,... PROGRAMMED the Variable Dimmer Slider Switch to PULSE instead of be a normal Dimmer Switch and turn on constant???

DO CAPACITORS / RHEOSTATS OR POTENTIOMETERS HAVE SOME SORT OF MEMORY? (clearly, they do...)

I'm Robert. HELLO! and Thank you,.

[norman40]

Hi,

This forum is intended for students, parents, and teachers working on K-12 science projects. If your question is related to a science project, please post some details such as your hypothesis, research question or experimental plan. If you are looking for help with homework or general science discussions there are other sites that should be able to answer your question.

A. Norman