Is ringing voltage dangerous?

From: Chuck McManis <cmcmanis_at_mcmanis.com>
Date: Mon Feb 28 12:09:10 2000

At 12:36 PM 2/28/00 -0500, you wrote:
>At 05:56 AM 2/28/00 -0800, Danial wrote:
>>You know, I've been told it's painful, but is it dangerous?
>>I just told another group about the supply I have (It outputs 110AC, 30hz,
>>.06 amp), and realized it's 110. Isn't that dangerous? If I really did zap
>>my kid brother with it, would it just hurt or could it really HURT him?
>>-------
>>
>
> No, it'll just hurt him. It'll sure get his attention though!

Bzzzt! And thanks for playing.

Electricity screws up a variety of things in the human body, the brain, the
heart, etc. All due to the interaction of electricity with nerves. You can
kill someone with a couple of microamps in the right spot, then again
10,000V from a static electricity build up is just a 'snap.'

The bottom line is current flowing through and around nerves and there
isn't a very good SPICE model for a human. However, lots of things can
change the situation:
        1) Is there a good conductive path for the electricity?
        2) What freqency is the signal?
        3) How much current does the base signal have? And how
           long can it keep that going?
        4) What is the "ground reference" for the circuit, where
           is ground relative to the point of entry?
        5) What is the blood sugar level of the victim?

The bottom line is, "Don't zap your kid brother, as tempting as that is,
because the down side (death, or permanent disability) is too great."

--Chuck
Received on Mon Feb 28 2000 - 12:09:10 GMT