Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!pacbell!ames!pasteur!helios.ee.lbl.gov!beva.bev.lbl.gov!wbrown
From: wbrown@beva.bev.lbl.gov (Bill Brown)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Touching a "hot" connector
Keywords: touch, sensation, live, shock
Message-ID: <3517@helios.ee.lbl.gov>
Date: 7 Aug 89 20:10:31 GMT
References: <89Jun8.160452edt.10877@ephemeral.ai.toronto.edu> <814@corpane.UUCP> <427@edai.ed.ac.uk> <1528@sunset.MATH.UCLA.EDU> <498@edai.ed.ac.uk>
Sender: usenet@helios.ee.lbl.gov
Reply-To: wlbrown@lbl.gov (Bill Brown)
Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley
Lines: 45

In article <498@edai.ed.ac.uk> cam@edai (Chris Malcolm) writes:
>I'd like to thank all those kind people who have expressed concern for
>my continued existence, given my habit of touching live wires to see if
>they are live.
> ...
>Well, as I promised, I tested my resistance. As I said I have dry skin.
>With a light touch. such as I use for testing mains, my resistance is
>>10MOhm. If I dampen my fingers by breathing on them, and grab the test
>prods painfully firmly, I can bring it down to around 10KOhm. That's
>still an order of magnitude under the lethal current. So you all kind
>folks can stop worrying about me!
>
As best I can remember, (it was a long time ago - longer than I like to
contemplate!!!) CG-165 , "U.S.Coast Guard Electronics Manual", quoted
50 ma as being enough to stop the heart, or in the case of A.C. (60 Hz)
put it into fribulation(sp?).  Aw what the heck, 1/2 order of magnitude
is plenty!  Like gee whiz, a factor of two ought to be ok! Especially
since al theses values are so exact.  An inch is as good as a mile!

I vaguely recall a line from something called "The 10 Electro-Commandments"
that went something like this:
	"Tary not among those fools who engage in intentional shocks, as
	they are surely unbeleivers and are not long for this world."

There was also a line to the effect that:
	"... electric cooking is a slothful process and one may
	simmer in ones' juices for hours before the Maker sees fit
	to drag thee from this vale of tears."

>Does anyone know what would happen if one inadvertently, one rainy
>night, with wet feet, pissed onto an electric fence?
>-- 
The exercise is left to the foolish as an experiment.

>Chris Malcolm    cam@uk.ac.ed.edai   031 667 1011 x2550
>Department of Artificial Intelligence, Edinburgh University
               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
AHA!!!!!!
>5 Forrest Hill, Edinburgh, EH1 2QL, UK		
						-bill
						wlbrown@lbl.gov

Disclaimer:  These opinions are my own and have nothing to do with the
    official policy or management of L.B.L, who probably couldn't care 
    less about employees who play with trains.