Ever been shocked or electrocuted?

[Ace82]

Yes, and now I'm dead, but not from the electric shock! ;D

 

[jnrpop]

Yep unfortunatley.felt allright afterwards though  

Just lucky it has been by low voltage camera caps rather one of these 450V beauties

 

[charliebruce]

I have had:
Electric shock pen - a few thousand volts
Train wall adapter - 24v? I licked the contacts and saw light blue for several minutes, with a bad headache
Batteries - 3.7,v 9v, 12v
Static shocks (Van der graaf generators, wooly jumpers etc)

Never have I been careless or unlucky enough to touch "mains" electricity but my uncle has done it twice - not very nice...
On a slightly odd note, everyone says mains shocks will kill you, but I have never heard of anyone actually dying from them. Why is this? Just urban legend? (I guess all but 7 of the dead people can't post on here to tell us their experiences though)

On a side note, what's the highest voltage anyone has read off a testmeter without dying? I've read off in the range of several thousand volts but it was a very quick arc, so I am not sure how high it was.

 

[jamilm9]

just got shocked by a 35kv cap! :

 

[LRMNmeyer]

I haven't really been shocked seriously yet...some of those joke pens, but nothing more. I haven't really done any messing with electricity, though, besides shorting capacitors out with an insulated screw driver...no modding or taking stuff apart yet...
So no.
I just noticed that I was the only person to say no... ;D
I guess it would be kind of weird for a 13 year old to be doing high voltage work with mains and stuff, wouldn't it?

 

[jamilm9]

I haven't really been shocked seriously yet...some of those joke pens, but nothing more. I haven't really done any messing with electricity, though, besides shorting capacitors out with an insulated screw driver...no modding or taking stuff apart yet...
So no.
I just noticed that I was the only person to say no... ;D
[highlight]I guess it would be kind of weird for a 13 year old to be doing high voltage work with mains and stuff, wouldn't it?[/highlight]

That could matter

 

[Schrecken_Licht]

On a slightly odd note, everyone says mains shocks will kill you, but I have never heard of anyone actually dying from them. Why is this? Just urban legend? (I guess all but 7 of the dead people can't post on here to tell us their experiences though)

On a side note, what's the highest voltage anyone has read off a testmeter without dying? I've read off in the range of several thousand volts but it was a very quick arc, so I am not sure how high it was.

That's an interesting question....I probably am not the best person to answer it, though, but I have a couple of ideas.  You do know, of course, that it is the amperage that is much more dangerous than voltage - 1 amp or a little less can kill.  This also begs the question as to why some people can be struck by lighting and survive - despite the fact that a lightning strike can carry thousands of volts and amps...with lighting there are lots of factors, like what part of the body is hit, if it's a direct hit or an arc from, say, a tree that's struck.

Human skin is a very poor conductor of electricity - dead, dry skin cells.  I'd imagine most of the time that when people come into contact with mains voltage much of the "juice" simply can't get past the skin's resistance.  That's also why in some cases people get burns - skin, and to a degree, flesh - resist the current.  The resistance creates heat.  If you can draw 110 or 120 v + 30 amps from a wall socket that's more than enough to kill....but obviously most people in most situations don't actually conduct that full power thru their body.  That's also probably why stories about (and you've probably seen it in movies) people in bath tubs having hairdryers and other appliances dropped into the water - in these situations people do die because the water is a conductor - then you would be getting a heck of a lot more juice than just touching something electrified with a dry hand.

On one other note - I think it also varies by the person - all the appliances I was shocked by, my father was able to touch them and not get shocked at all.  So some people apparently have more resistance than others....

 

[digital_blue]

The human body is quite resilient to injury(shocks, falls, impacts of various sorts, etc). Most people can survive a 110 volt jolt even through the heart. It's a matter of circumstance, if the electricity needs to go through your heart just right to stop your heart... A puny little .22 can kill you just as dead as a .44 magnum but it's a matter of circumstance again; if it hits you in the right place with the right amount of force...

 

[JLSE]

Dont chew the wires  

Rest of the pics here...

http://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?t=4047

 

[charleytown55il]

thats more then 120 or 240 volt wiring. i bet its a few thousand volts

 

[Benm]

I've had a couple of shocks from household current - and mains is 230 volts here, so it packs more punch than american outlets. Those pesky differential-current breakers prove to life safers at some instances

 

[JLSE]

thats more then 120 or 240 volt wiring. i bet its a few thousand volts

If you click on the link and read the bottom portion of the page, there is talk of if its high or low voltage, current etc.

 

[jamilm9]

it said 5000 volts

 

[jnrpop]

Man thats one meduim-rare grisly...
When i was 10 i tried creating a """Star-wars Force Field""" ;D ;D ;D haha using 240 mains, if our house hadn of had trip switches i prop would of been in the same position that bears in now...
Today i can see how absolutley stupid i was. i mean a "force field" ahahahahah

 

[diachi]

it said 5000 volts

IT'S OVER 9000 ! ;D

 

[diachi]

Man thats one meduim-rare grisly...
When i was 10 i tried creating a """Star-wars Force Field"""  ;D ;D ;D haha using 240 mains, if our house hadn of had trip switches i prop would of been in the same position that bears in now...
Today i can see how absolutley stupid i was. i mean a "force field" ahahahahah

Lmao , Star-wars force field ;D I would love to see how you planned on doing that