Class Retaliation

Among science students Caltech is the capital of retaliation. A particularly satisfying incident in the early 1970's involved a math professor who annoyed students by his mechanical, predictable approach to teaching - his lecture notes were straight from his book. One student got hold of a device that changed the normal frequency in an electrical outlet to any desired value. He plugged the classroom clock into it and, over several weeks, upped the speed - first by 10 percent, then 12.5 percent, then 15 percent. Each day the frazzled professor raced through the tried-and-true lecture faster and faster, until finally he was reduced to fast-forward gibberish.

-- From an issue of "Discover"