4 ms·

OT: > "In march of 2014, a young man posed for a selfie atop a boxcar. Diverted, he was unaware of the 35,000-volt livewire just beside him." These articles a

by SeanDav 11y ago

OT: > "In march of 2014, a young man posed for a selfie atop a boxcar. Diverted, he was unaware of the 35,000-volt livewire just beside him." These articles always quote high Voltage numbers as being dangerous. It is not the Volts that are particularly dangerous, but the amps. A static shock you get from a carpet or doorknob etc can be as much as 25,000 Volts and you barely notice it. A 100 Volt shock with 50 amps behind it can kill you very easily.

CPLX 11y ago
While your story is true, I think it's fair to say that "X,000+ electrical transmission cable" has a 1:1 correlation with "electric cable strong enough to kill you".
Ma8ee 11y ago
The higher the voltage the higher the current through the body. Now the exact resistance of a person varies enormously, in particular if we take into account things like rubber boots or if the person managed to ground herself. But as long as the system can deliver it, the current through the body will be 250 times higher when the voltage is 25000 V than when it is 100 V. Now a very low current through the heart might kill you, so with a little bit of bad luck or stupidity you'll die from a 100 V source. Like you are replacing a lightbulb in an old fixture with one wet hand resting the other one on the kitchen sink. 25000 V will almost certainly kill you. The moisture outside you rubber boots probably has low enough resistance to let a deadly current through your body. The exception is of course the static shocks. Here you are saved by the extremely low total charge. To summarize, yes it is the current that kills you, but it is the voltage that matters.
- theoh 11y ago
  Not to mention the fact that, for example, high frequency AC is pretty harmless at any voltage because (waves hands) the current travels over the surface of the body... Or something.

4 ms·

OT: > "In march of 2014, a young man posed for a selfie atop a boxcar. Diverted, he was unaware of the 35,000-volt livewire just beside him." These articles a

by SeanDav 11y ago

CPLX 11y ago
While your story is true, I think it's fair to say that "X,000+ electrical transmission cable" has a 1:1 correlation with "electric cable strong enough to kill you".
Ma8ee 11y ago
The higher the voltage the higher the current through the body. Now the exact resistance of a person varies enormously, in particular if we take into account things like rubber boots or if the person managed to ground herself. But as long as the system can deliver it, the current through the body will be 250 times higher when the voltage is 25000 V than when it is 100 V. Now a very low current through the heart might kill you, so with a little bit of bad luck or stupidity you'll die from a 100 V source. Like you are replacing a lightbulb in an old fixture with one wet hand resting the other one on the kitchen sink. 25000 V will almost certainly kill you. The moisture outside you rubber boots probably has low enough resistance to let a deadly current through your body. The exception is of course the static shocks. Here you are saved by the extremely low total charge. To summarize, yes it is the current that kills you, but it is the voltage that matters.
- theoh 11y ago
  Not to mention the fact that, for example, high frequency AC is pretty harmless at any voltage because (waves hands) the current travels over the surface of the body... Or something.