The "old wives" are in rare form today!
Actually, here's the real story - electricity travels at the speed of light - 186,000 miles per second. When those electrons enter a coil, then centrifugal force throws them against the outside 1/4 of the wire. Effectively then, you are only using a conductor 1/4 the size of the conductor if it was laid in a straight line. That overheats the wire. To make matters worse, because it is alternating current, every .01666 of a second (60Hz), the electrons reverse direction and slam into each other (you can hear this if you put your ear close to the coil - they make a squealing sound). This causes an additional heating in the wire. Before you know it, you have a smoldering pile of plastic and copper laying on your campsite. All because you didn't uncoil your wire.
I'M JOKING!! - Just thought I would contribute another old wives tale.
:R:W
