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Discussion on: Different types of testing explained

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sliqjustin profile image
sliq-justin

"The term smoke test seems to be a holdover from plumbing. If you could see smoke or steam coming out of a pipe, it was leaky and needed to be fixed."

I was under the impression that "smoke test" was borrowed from Electrical Engineering. i.e.: "This is the first time we're powering on the device/circuit. Be ready to turn it back of if we see or smell smoke."

Interestingly, this is the first I've heard the term used as a reference to plumbing. TIL, I guess.

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thejessleigh profile image
jess unrein

So I looked at this and from what I found online (I will admit, I did not verify the sources), the smoke test concept from electrical engineering came from plumbing, so it's a term that's traversed several industries :)