3 ms·
@idiotsecant is correct. Length of arc correlates to voltage, while most of the potential pain or damage from an arc will correlate more to amperage and/or to d
by HappMacDonald 2y ago
@idiotsecant is correct. Length of arc correlates to voltage, while most of the potential pain or damage from an arc will correlate more to amperage and/or to duration.
- kadoban 2y agoYou're correct, but just for fun's sake: The amperage of static elecricity discharges like this can be quite high, tens of amps is common. So walking across a carpet and getting a shock can easily be tens of amps at thousands of volts, and we're just totally fine (because it's for a tiny fraction of a second).
- HPsquared 2y agoSo it's not the Amps that get you, but the Coulombs? Or is it the Joules?
- myrmidon 2y agoLethality of electricity is multi-dimensional, trying to reduce it to a single quantity does not really work (exposure time and electrical frequency are very important).
- tuetuopay 2y agoneither. even a shortcut saying like "total energy delivered" is not accurate, because it depends on how it is delivered and how it dissipates. styropyro made a fascinating (if terrifying) video about it
- HPsquared 2y agoSounds a bit like fuse wire (except the frequency dependence)... There's both a current and a time component. High overloads can be tolerated for a very short time without blowing the fuse, while low overloads can be sustained for longer before the fuse reaches its maximum temperature and breaks.