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FrozenGate by Avery

Miniumum voltage needed to shock?

I know, metal and plastic chairs constently shock you! The legs have shocked through my shoe before. :o
 





I was reading in a scinence test that 250mA is enough for your muscles to tighten, 500mA is enough for respitory problems and 1A is enough to cuase heart problems, possibly a heart attack.
 
6ma is enough to stop your heart, 1A would deffinately kill you, and cook you if you came into contact with it at high voltage.
 
ive heard a half amp will kill, but it needs enough voltage to get across your arms....



any volunteers for a test?
 
Unlucky one here, caught one side of 480 main (220) here while back at work, it was locked out but the idiots who worked at the plant took the lockout off and turned back on the breaker while I was working on the line. They needed a pump on now, now they need a job. That was an experience I will never forget. I was on my butt and couldn't breathe, as well as pissed my pants. (yes I can admit that) Lucky I didn't get both leads or I would most likely be dead. I still have pain from that and it was almost a year ago. The cool thing is 110 doesn't bother me anymore, been hit with that alot because of bad wiring jobs I am having to fix. I don't know if i should be lucky really or not, because it got me in the right arm, thru the hand to my elbow. If it had went on my left side or right to left I might be dead.

MORAL: Shock sucks. Buy an electricity detecting pen and DMM to TEST every wire you work on, EVERY TIME. especially when working with fools.
 
It also depends (at least based on my own personal experiences) on how much of your body is in contact with the electrified source.  I've been jolted with both 110 and 220v, and I swear the 110 was a lot worse - at least in one situation - I'll explain in a sec.

Many years ago, when my father was still alive and I was living at home, somehow our electric clothes dryer became grounded to a water pipe (don't ask me how - that's what the dryer repairman said).  Well, one day I went to get my clothes out of it, and I got a nasty jolt. So I told my dad, and (this really made me mad) and he went and put his hands all over the damned thing and said he felt nothing! He told me it was static shock (despite the fact that it was summer time and humid as hell!) - as if I couldn't tell the difference between 220v and static electricity.  So I had to open and close the door by putting on a latex dish glove and grabbing a rag....which was ample protection.   This gave me a new reason to hate doing the laundry....but I will say my father was real sheepish when the dryer belt broke and he called a repairman, who immediately saw a spark arcing from the dryer to the water pipe.  I was vindicated.

But back to what I said....the dryer I just barely touched with the tips of my fingers (or maybe my knuckles - the handle on the door itself was plastic).  Not long after the dryer incident, somehow my father's bench grinder in his workshop (sometimes I would borrow his tools) also became electrified.  One day I reached over to grab a tool and put my hand on the grinder - big mistake. I had my whole hand on it - the surfaces of my palm and all my fingers - pressed hard onto it.  I was unable to move my hand or my fingers - luckily I was able to lean backward and break the contact.  That was only a "puny" 110v but because I had the entire surface of my hand and fingers on it there was more area to conduct the current.  That sucker hurt - my hand and arm tingled and ached for a couple hours afterward.  I was also shocked by a hotplate and a lamp, but again, I only had a couple of fingertips in contact with those sources - they weren't bad at all.  

So, you guessed it - my father came out and put his hands all over that grinder and nothing!  So whenever I'd go out there to work I'd unplug the thing, and he'd plug it back in again, this went on until one day he got a shock from the thing.

I think my father's resistance to the juice was largely a factor of his alcoholism - when you drink constantly and/or excessively, the booze dehydrates your body - and skin will show the effect of dehydration pretty quickly.  The body tries to conserve what water it has and draws it away from the skin, which is probably what provided increased resistance to the electricity.   Just my theory.  Not saying that one should get drunk as a skunk to help avoid electric shock..... ;D
 
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