Find why a child's science-fair electromagnet wasn't working on a Gemini Live video call

Posted

Jun 5, 2026 by takee (Hacker News)

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Last checked

Oct 18, 2026

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Method:

How we verify

Evidence: Described by posterThe person describes what happened in words, without screenshots or video.

Beginner-friendlyNo logins, payments or coding needed. Low risk: paste the prompt and you should get something useful.

Outcome

A Hacker News commenter and their 10-year-old couldn't get an electromagnet experiment for the school science fair to work. On a Gemini Live video call, Gemini went through the possible causes and spotted that the insulation hadn't been scraped off properly at the end of the wire connected to the battery, which the parent couldn't see. The apparatus then worked as expected, and the commenter says the child and two friends were impressed.

Agent

Gemini

The source didn't share its exact prompt, so we wrote this from what it describes.

Before you start, ask me 1–3 short questions about anything important that's missing below. Keep them quick. Then do the task, checking in with me at the key points.

Goal: Help us work out why our child's science project isn't working by looking at it on camera with us.

What I can give you (ask for whatever's missing):
- A live video or photos of the setup from a few angles
- What it's meant to do and what it's doing instead
- The parts and materials we used

Safety first: keep batteries from overheating, never use mains electricity, and tell us to stop if anything gets hot or smells of burning.

Rules:
- Ask us to show specific parts close up, one at a time.
- Go through likely causes from simplest (connections, power, assembly) to less likely.
- Explain the science behind each check in a way a 10-year-old can follow.
- Let the child make each fix with our help rather than telling us the answer outright.
- Check facts that can change (prices, opening hours, dates, availability, rules) against the official source, and tell me anything you couldn't verify.

Output: The likely cause, how to fix it, and a one-sentence explanation the child can use at the fair.

You'll know it worked when: the project works and the child can explain why it failed before.

Before you start, ask me 1–3 short questions about anything important that's missing below. Keep them quick. Then do the task, checking in with me at the key points.

Goal: Help us work out why our child's science project isn't working by looking at it on camera with us.

What I can give you (ask for whatever's missing):
- A live video or photos of the setup from a few angles
- What it's meant to do and what it's doing instead
- The parts and materials we used

Safety first: keep batteries from overheating, never use mains electricity, and tell us to stop if anything gets hot or smells of burning.

Rules:
- Ask us to show specific parts close up, one at a time.
- Go through likely causes from simplest (connections, power, assembly) to less likely.
- Explain the science behind each check in a way a 10-year-old can follow.
- Let the child make each fix with our help rather than telling us the answer outright.
- Check facts that can change (prices, opening hours, dates, availability, rules) against the official source, and tell me anything you couldn't verify.
- Remind us to disconnect the battery between tests so the wire doesn't get hot.

Output: The likely cause, how to fix it, and a one-sentence explanation the child can use at the fair.

You'll know it worked when: the project works and the child can explain why it failed before.

Before you finish: re-read my goal and constraints, check your answer against each one, and list anything you assumed or couldn't confirm.

Source

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48419364