3 ms·

I used to ask electrical engineers who design building utilities if they ever touched a live wire with voltage running. If not, "how do you know it is really d

I used to ask electrical engineers who design building utilities if they ever touched a live wire with voltage running. If not, "how do you know it is really dangerous? How do you know it will electrocute you?" They don't. EVER. Want to talk to me again if they don't have to. #ConventionalIgnorance For reference, I touched 10k volts with microcurrents. It hurts! I touched 240 volts wire and felt the vibrations run up to my elbow before realizing what happened. It terrifies. And I touched 120v electricity leaking through a brick wall in vicinity of a lighting fixture. That hurts too much but doesn't kill.

throwway120385 2y ago
It can be very lethal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_chair https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_chair
- nashashmi 2y ago
  > The entire execution took about eight minutes. George Westinghouse later commented that, "They would have done better using an axe",[27] and The New York Times ran the headline: "Far worse than hanging".[28] Looks like it takes a while to kill.
nashashmi 2y ago
And looks like this hurt people on HN.
advisedwang 2y ago
> how do you know it is really dangerous? How do you know it will electrocute you? It is possible to learn from others. In fact, our society's entire foundation of knowledge comes from building on the knowledge of past generations and others in our current generation. Not everything needs to be verified from scratch by every user of the knowledge, and if it did we'd never make it past roman tech levels.
lmm 2y ago
> That hurts too much but doesn't kill. It didn't kill once. Not enough of a sample to draw a firm conclusion from.
- nashashmi 2y ago
  Reminds me of a post on HN: No random clinical trials were done to demonstrate parachutes actually work.
  - lmm 2y ago
    Most papers that cited that one have ended up getting retracted. Turns out rigour matters.
trinix912 2y ago
I've seen 400V industrial equipment shock people and not kill them and I know someone from my hometown whose grandfather died of an electrocution on a 230V outlet. We have the ability to learn from others' mistakes, that's one of the main reasons we've gone so far as species. Not every child needs to get serious burns to learn that fire is hot and can be dangerous.

throwway120385 2y ago

It can be very lethal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_chair https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_chair

nashashmi 2y ago
> The entire execution took about eight minutes. George Westinghouse later commented that, "They would have done better using an axe",[27] and The New York Times ran the headline: "Far worse than hanging".[28] Looks like it takes a while to kill.

nashashmi 2y ago

And looks like this hurt people on HN.

advisedwang 2y ago

> how do you know it is really dangerous? How do you know it will electrocute you? It is possible to learn from others. In fact, our society's entire foundation of knowledge comes from building on the knowledge of past generations and others in our current generation. Not everything needs to be verified from scratch by every user of the knowledge, and if it did we'd never make it past roman tech levels.

lmm 2y ago

> That hurts too much but doesn't kill. It didn't kill once. Not enough of a sample to draw a firm conclusion from.

nashashmi 2y ago
Reminds me of a post on HN: No random clinical trials were done to demonstrate parachutes actually work.
- lmm 2y ago
  Most papers that cited that one have ended up getting retracted. Turns out rigour matters.

trinix912 2y ago

I've seen 400V industrial equipment shock people and not kill them and I know someone from my hometown whose grandfather died of an electrocution on a 230V outlet. We have the ability to learn from others' mistakes, that's one of the main reasons we've gone so far as species. Not every child needs to get serious burns to learn that fire is hot and can be dangerous.