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"Do not allow the bare wires to touch each other from this point on."

What happens if they touch? Note that this is while the adapter is unplugged, before sticking the wires into the potato, so shorting them isn't a concern. I can't really imagine that some kind of contamination is a problem since both wires are (probably) copper, nor would I expect any kind of reaction as long as it is unplugged.

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At some point during the following steps you're turning on the power, If they were touching at that time you'd get some real nice sparks and a tripped breaker or blown fuse. To simplify instructions the poster just said don't let em touch after this step as opposed to something like "When power is applied the wires can't touch"

Nah, none of that. Just your charger gets bricked so not knowing which one of the wires are positive and negative going to be the least of your worries from that point on.

That's the theory. I have seen smoke coming out of a charger when the 5v DC side got short circuited due to wire damage. Quickly unplugged obviously, but I assume there was a real possibility of the AC side shorting if things melt inside the charger.

Of course, that's always a possibility.

Well any DC converter worth its salt ought to have short protection, so likely nothing. But power would be turned off for the duration so the experiment wouldn't work.

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