Having had a "shock" from a bayonet light fitting dropped into a tropical aquarium I would have to agree. I say "shock" as it was really just a tingle that got worse the closer you got to the socket.
As I was 10 at the time I didn't really think about turning the power off until I had tried to pick it up.
Needless to say I decided that bayonet fittings and aquaria don't mix.
In article , Derek ^ writes
Simply due to the superheated steam caused by the discharge.
I have seen the effects of some of the strikes on trees, in one case a tall blue gum tree. The strike travelled down the trunk on the outside of the tree, (stripping the bark in the process), to a nearby 6 ft pre-cast wall, left the tree trunk at the wall height, jumped across to the top of this wall, burst the concrete, exposing the reinforcing on the path to earth on the way to earth; the bottom part of the tree corresponding to the height of the wall had no damage. These lightning strikes take the path of least resistance through the air or objects, if there is a person close to a tree trunk for example, the current may divide between the path down to ground via the tree trunk and the person's body. The current flow will divide in ratio to the parallel resistances of the tree trunk and the person's body on the path to earth. The strike also produces very strong magnetic fields, currents can then be induced in metallic jewellery so causing overheating or melting, similar to the transformer effect. Jaymack
In Australia some electric kettles have bare elements, like a miniature underwater electric bar fire. This seems to be quite safe if the jug is plastic, but not allowed in the UK .
but it might give you nickel poisoning.
rusty
There was a program on SKY TV called mythbusters and they tested th theory of whether a electrical item thrown in a bath full of wate would kill, like it does in the movies!
Bear in mind that they are in the USA and so they were on 110v and tri switches. Even then the current was definately enough to Kill!, The tried it several times, with different bath salts etc. in the water!
My advice- don't try it
-- weekendwarrior
The sea water is the clue. It's a lot saltier than you are, and is a better conductor - so most of the current went around you. Don't try that in fresh water!
Andy
Many years ago we had off peak heating at work. The storage device was a well lagged (with asbestos) tank of water. It was heated by passing electricity directly through the water in a three phase 'electrode boiler'. Perfectly safe, as long as the water was contained within the (earthed) metal boiler. If the heater didn't work properly due to high conductivity water, we just added salt to it.
Mythbusters isn't very good. It is a show where two guys prove that they don't have enough brain power to make things happen not that the things can't happen.
too latEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
I saw a programme years ago and they used a 4.5V battery one end to metal bath, other end to loose wire dipped in bath and measured the potential around the bath with and without someone in the bath. Basically when someone was lying in the bath, wire at head end of bath, his shoulders were at around 4V and feet at 0V. Therefore for 230V this would probably be fatal. All due to the body being a better conductor than the water.
And sausages can be cooked by inserting electrodes at both ends and passing a suitable current. Was is on Jeremy Clarkson's TV show a few years ago.
The current may be high enough to kill. But can you get your body close enough to where that current is flowing through the water to make a difference? Sigh. It would have to be last week that I threw out a broken heater.
Ian Stirling explained on 29/08/2005 :
...and most RCD's provide less than adequate protection, especially the single RCD's used in the DB's for whole home protection. It is generally accepted that it needs less than 10mA to electrocute someone, whereas these only trip at >30mA.
I think this is age related. FWIW, a 70 year old needs a lot less current than a 20 year old for a 50% kill probability (according to some measurements, no idea how they got them).
rusty
It's duration related too. However, the comments you quote are probably wrong (they are too imprecise to be sure what the poster meant to say).
I saw a graph in a safey magazine about 15 years ago which related (as you say) current, time, and age. I think 30 mA a/c for 15 mins at the worst attachment points, ie between one hand and the opposite foot so the current goes throught the heart, could just finish off a feeble seniour citizenpensioner but not a healthy young person. So that's a reasonable place to fix the leakage trip level. I don't have a copy of the mag. but its probably on the web somewhere by now.
there's also the problem of involuntary twitches which might make you drop a power tool and cause mechanical injury.
rusty
30mA for 15 MINUTES? Are you sure about that?
Not really, this is going back a long way. Have a look at
rusty
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