4 ms·

It wouldn't be done deliberately. If anything, it's an example of how electricity's invisibility and sometimes very counterintuitive behavior make it never whol

It wouldn't be done deliberately. If anything, it's an example of how electricity's invisibility and sometimes very counterintuitive behavior make it never wholly trustworthy, no matter how we've come to rely on it. I wouldn't change that reliance on a bet! Electrical power infrastructure is the most revolutionary human application of energy since the discovery of fire. But, like fire, there's only so far you ever want to trust it.

MichaelZuo 6y ago
I agree that electricity has unintuitive behaviour though it is trustworthy, at least as far as you would trust a water system, if one understands why electricity doesn’t behave the same as water.
- throwanem 6y ago
  You can see water. It's a lot less potentially lethal, too. I understand how electricity works well enough to handle it safely - and, at least as important, to know when I can't handle it safely and it's time to call in a professional - but that's not the same as trusting it. Honestly, it's a lot more the same as not trusting it. I can and do prototype line-voltage filament LED lamp designs on my bench without a problem, but I think more than anything else it's maintaining a lively awareness of the danger involved that helps there not be a problem. What's really scary is stuff that's as dangerous as those prototypes and doesn't look it - a condition that I think only ionizing radiation excels electricity in making it possible to create. All anyone has to do is screw up wiring an appliance with exposed metal parts, and the whole thing can be live at potentially lethal mains voltage - and I'll freely admit that having had my batteries very unpleasantly charged that way once, thanks to a miswired ceiling fan, strongly informs my perspective on the subject. As with fire, so with electricity: an indispensably useful servant, but also an ineluctably dangerous one, to be regarded with respectful mistrust at all times lest a moment's carelessness end in tragedy.
  - nucleardog 6y ago
    > All anyone has to do is screw up wiring an appliance with exposed metal parts, and the whole thing can be live at potentially lethal mains voltage Or for extra fun, the wiring in the house. Lots of people think things like changing a plug are "easy" (they are), but they're also really easy to screw up. Now you don't need some DIY'd appliance. Your Ikea stuff is now potentially deadly. The number of DIY jobs I've run across where the hot/neutral are reversed on the plugs... It's insidious because for all intents and purposes it will _work_. Nothing you plug in will have any issues. But that nice shiny metal lamp you've got? It's got the neutral bonded to the body so that if the hot were to come loose and contact the body it has a path to ground. What happens when the neutral and hot are reversed? The body of your lamp is now live, and when it's off it has no path to ground. Wear rubber shoes when you're turning your lamp on and off. Your toaster? It only switches the hot. So when your toast is done and you stick your metal knife all up in there to try and dig your toast out, it's all still live with no path to ground. Whoops. A lot of assumptions that are essential to things being safe all fall apart as soon as someone puts those black wires under the silver screws.
    - marcosdumay 6y ago
      > But that nice shiny metal lamp you've got? It's got the neutral bonded to the body That would be illegal where I live, and I think in most of the world too. In fact, on a standard residential outlet here, it would immediately bring the house power down. Either the body is grounded or it's floating. It should never be linked to the neutral.
      - nucleardog 6y ago
        > on a standard residential outlet here, it would immediately bring the house power down. How?
        marcosdumay 6y ago
        There's a circuit breaker designed specifically for that. In English I think it's called "residual current device".

MichaelZuo 6y ago

I agree that electricity has unintuitive behaviour though it is trustworthy, at least as far as you would trust a water system, if one understands why electricity doesn’t behave the same as water.

throwanem 6y ago
You can see water. It's a lot less potentially lethal, too. I understand how electricity works well enough to handle it safely - and, at least as important, to know when I can't handle it safely and it's time to call in a professional - but that's not the same as trusting it. Honestly, it's a lot more the same as not trusting it. I can and do prototype line-voltage filament LED lamp designs on my bench without a problem, but I think more than anything else it's maintaining a lively awareness of the danger involved that helps there not be a problem. What's really scary is stuff that's as dangerous as those prototypes and doesn't look it - a condition that I think only ionizing radiation excels electricity in making it possible to create. All anyone has to do is screw up wiring an appliance with exposed metal parts, and the whole thing can be live at potentially lethal mains voltage - and I'll freely admit that having had my batteries very unpleasantly charged that way once, thanks to a miswired ceiling fan, strongly informs my perspective on the subject. As with fire, so with electricity: an indispensably useful servant, but also an ineluctably dangerous one, to be regarded with respectful mistrust at all times lest a moment's carelessness end in tragedy.
- nucleardog 6y ago
  > All anyone has to do is screw up wiring an appliance with exposed metal parts, and the whole thing can be live at potentially lethal mains voltage Or for extra fun, the wiring in the house. Lots of people think things like changing a plug are "easy" (they are), but they're also really easy to screw up. Now you don't need some DIY'd appliance. Your Ikea stuff is now potentially deadly. The number of DIY jobs I've run across where the hot/neutral are reversed on the plugs... It's insidious because for all intents and purposes it will _work_. Nothing you plug in will have any issues. But that nice shiny metal lamp you've got? It's got the neutral bonded to the body so that if the hot were to come loose and contact the body it has a path to ground. What happens when the neutral and hot are reversed? The body of your lamp is now live, and when it's off it has no path to ground. Wear rubber shoes when you're turning your lamp on and off. Your toaster? It only switches the hot. So when your toast is done and you stick your metal knife all up in there to try and dig your toast out, it's all still live with no path to ground. Whoops. A lot of assumptions that are essential to things being safe all fall apart as soon as someone puts those black wires under the silver screws.
  - marcosdumay 6y ago
    > But that nice shiny metal lamp you've got? It's got the neutral bonded to the body That would be illegal where I live, and I think in most of the world too. In fact, on a standard residential outlet here, it would immediately bring the house power down. Either the body is grounded or it's floating. It should never be linked to the neutral.
    - nucleardog 6y ago
      > on a standard residential outlet here, it would immediately bring the house power down. How?
      - marcosdumay 6y ago
        There's a circuit breaker designed specifically for that. In English I think it's called "residual current device".