# Is it pins or pings the meter?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-pins-or-pings-the-meter/658527
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 16, 2013, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-pins-or-pings-the-meter/658527 "2013-05-16T17:11:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 18
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)
#### Post date: [May 16, 2013, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-pins-or-pings-the-meter/658527/21 "2013-05-16T21:43:50Z")
It means pushing the physical needle all the way to the pin or peg just past the end of the scale, not holding it right at the end of the scale. In engineering, a pin is a slender cylinder. Hinges have pins, for example. As another example, you might pin a gear onto a shaft, meaning putting the gear on the shaft, drilling a hole through the hub and shaft together, and driving a pin into the hole. There are also special forms of pins, like the cotter pin or the roll pin. The pin in a meter movement is a safer stopping mechanism than whatever needle would hit next, which might jam it or break it or let its fine wires be pulled to breaking.
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### Author:  [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)
#### Post date: [May 16, 2013, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-pins-or-pings-the-meter/658527/22 "2013-05-16T22:46:48Z")
Pegging a meter is something that pilots and race car drivers do. Bullshit meters are like Geiger counters. They ping for individual bullshit events.
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### Author:  [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)
#### Post date: [May 16, 2013, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-pins-or-pings-the-meter/658527/23 "2013-05-16T23:20:18Z")
> [@njtt](#):
>
> I think the OP misheard “pings” as “pins” at some time, and started to use the latter, inventing a rationalization for it. He may not be the only one, though.
That sounds plausible.
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### Author:  [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)
#### Post date: [May 16, 2013, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-pins-or-pings-the-meter/658527/24 "2013-05-16T23:21:17Z")
> [@DrCube](#):
>
> Pegging a meter is something that pilots and race car drivers do. Bullshit meters are like Geiger counters. They ping for individual bullshit events.
Exactly. Similar to gaydar, etc. (which may itself ping some people’s bullshit meters).
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [May 16, 2013, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-pins-or-pings-the-meter/658527/25 "2013-05-16T23:59:51Z")
> [@njtt](#):
>
> I think the OP misheard “pings” as “pins” at some time, and started to use the latter, inventing a rationalization for it. He may not be the only one, though.
No.
“Pinning” a meter has been an expression in electronics almost since meters were invented. See my earlier post, with a photo of the pins on a meter face.
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### Author:  [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2013, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-pins-or-pings-the-meter/658527/26 "2013-05-17T03:04:08Z")
> [@Sailboat](#):
>
> “ **Pegs** ” the meter is what I’ve always seen/heard.
This.
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### Author:  [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2013, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-pins-or-pings-the-meter/658527/27 "2013-05-17T04:22:34Z")
'“pins” the meter - to me may mean its not a constant - it pins the meter ‘at times’ - like others have said, it indicates that the ‘max’ position on the dial has been hit, and there is usually a ‘pin’ that stops the needle from going furhter.
“pegs” the meter - is the more forceful of the two - it essentially means the same thing, but it seems it would have more of a “it got there and stayed” - and go there ‘FAST’.
Especially when you consider that pin == peg when talking about the thing at the end of the dial that stops the needle.
To “ping a meter” - I would think of something like watching for an occasional twitch to the needle - a single ping could pin it, but it would be so short that it would not remain pegged.
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### Author:  [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2013, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-pins-or-pings-the-meter/658527/28 "2013-05-17T12:02:25Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#):
>
> I don’t know what make & model of BS meter you all have, or where you got yours, but the way mine works is, it **pings** whenever I read or hear something that shouldn’t be accepted uncritically
Ah, I see you have the machine that goes ‘ping!’. This is my favorite. You see, we lease this back from the company we sold it to - that way it comes under the monthly current budget and not the capital account.
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### Author:  [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2013, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-pins-or-pings-the-meter/658527/29 "2013-05-17T13:27:48Z")
Pin and Peg from the fact that the needle would hit the peg or pin that was placed as a stop to the meter.
[Some meters](http://jgstudios.photoshelter.com/image/I0000tSObSaWJpHo) do ping when they max out.
And for the record, electric utilities using smart grid technology will “ping” meters to determine if power is restored after an outage. But that’s using a differnt definition of ping.
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### Author:  [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2013, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-pins-or-pings-the-meter/658527/30 "2013-05-17T13:36:05Z")
Does Sky Mall sell these bullshitometers?
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### Author:  [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2013, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-pins-or-pings-the-meter/658527/31 "2013-05-17T13:39:05Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#):
>
> Does Sky Mall sell these bullshitometers?
Yes. It’s in the shape of a bull’s ass, can be made into a coffee table, and costs $299.95.
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### Author:  [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2013, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-pins-or-pings-the-meter/658527/32 "2013-05-17T13:44:48Z")
Its certainly “pins the meter” for anyone who was into electronics or audio decades ago. It meant circuit overload as in the OP.
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### Author:  [@EmAnJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmAnJ)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2013, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-pins-or-pings-the-meter/658527/33 "2013-05-17T14:11:14Z")
I have never heard ‘pins the meter’, only ‘pings the meter’.
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### Author:  [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2013, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-pins-or-pings-the-meter/658527/34 "2013-05-17T14:15:47Z")
If you had the scale on your Volt Ohm Meter set too low and you measured too high of a voltage or current, you can make the needle bend when it hits the peg.
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### Author:  [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2013, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-pins-or-pings-the-meter/658527/35 "2013-05-17T16:13:32Z")
I’ve heard only “pegs” the meter, but “pins” makes perfect sense and a quick googling shows that it’s common.
“Pings” would make sense only as mentioned above: “registers on” rather than as a synonym for “pegs”.
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### Author:  [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2013, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-pins-or-pings-the-meter/658527/36 "2013-05-17T16:50:00Z")
Perhaps “pins” vs “pegs” is regional?
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### Author:  [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2013, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-pins-or-pings-the-meter/658527/37 "2013-05-17T18:28:00Z")
> [@Sailboat](#):
>
> “ **Pegs** ” the meter is what I’ve always seen/heard.
^^^^ this.
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### Author:  [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2013, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-pins-or-pings-the-meter/658527/38 "2013-05-17T18:47:27Z")
> [@DrCube](#):
>
> Pegging a meter is something that pilots and race car drivers do. Bullshit meters are like Geiger counters. They ping for individual bullshit events.
… but Geiger counters notoriously don’t ping - they crackle !
I’d say “ping” in that sense would warrant a different construction : instead of “it pinged my BSmeter”, wouldn’t it be better to say “my BS meter just pinged” ?
As for the pin/peg one, I always heard/said it “pegs” myself, but “pins” probably has the exact same origin. Anyway, when in doubt, just say your whatever-meter just exploded :D.
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