Electrocution question

[Evadman]

And here i was just thinking electricians were either lazy or constantly playing with themselves. Seriously i never heard that rule and i have worked and socialized with several electricians for years. The best way to stop an electric shock going through your heart is to make damn sure the item you are working on is disconected from the power supply.

I have also heard and follow the 1 hand rule, mostly because I tend to work on things that are still energized. Not everything can be turned off.

 

[Howard]

I have also heard and follow the 1 hand rule, mostly because I tend to work on things that are still energized. Not everything can be turned off.

Isn't it nice that the heart is on the left side of the body, while most people are right-handed?

 

[Squisher]

I had never heard that before, but it makes sense.

Most electricians know about the 1 hand rule... where you should always keep 1 hand in your pocket when working on equipment.
That way, the current flows through your arm, down your side, and into your leg, instead of across your chest to your other arm (through your heart).

I suspect hand to hand electrocutions are fairly rare compared to hand to leg electrocutions.

Back in the olden days, the number one cause of death by lightning was talking on the phone. The brain seems to not like electricity either.

 

[Throckmorton]

The 1 hand rule was taught to me when I was 12 from an local Ham radio guy. The same guy had me winding transformers by hand, building crystal radios out of coffee cans, etc. I credit him for being the one that started my interest in electronics. Being able to build a radio out of a piece of metal, some wire and cellophane and have it work with no power source really got me interested.

I call shenanigans

 

[mindless1]

And here i was just thinking electricians were either lazy or constantly playing with themselves. Seriously i never heard that rule and i have worked and socialized with several electricians for years. The best way to stop an electric shock going through your heart is to make damn sure the item you are working on is disconected from the power supply.

A competent technician doesn't just slap something together, back up and cross their fingers, they check circuits while operating which requires power. Also, many faults cannot be found without probing a (semi-) live circuit.

Granted this is more often in the realm of electronics and repair work than general electrician work, and some forethought and preparedness would suggest that a current limited supply is a good idea - a homebrew way of achieving that is to feed the hot AC power lead through an incandescent light bulb. Even so that is more for a basic circuit protection, enough current will flow through the lightbulb to stop the heart.

As for the odd question about electrocution by various wire types it does not matter. The resistance of the human body is far larger than the resistance difference from different types of wire... both are metals chosen to be reasonably efficient at transmitting power and their resistance difference is trivial when talking about the few mA current needed to electrocute, but if you want it to be gruesome, dial back the current so it takes days or consider death by spoon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VDvgL58h_Y

 

[Modelworks]

I call shenanigans

It is fact,
http://bizarrelabs.com/foxhole.htm

 

[William Gaatjes]

It is fact,
http://bizarrelabs.com/foxhole.htm

I agree. It is indeed fact.
Throckmorton should read this post .
http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=31002026&postcount=9


When there is enough EM (the radio signal transmitted is strong enough) all you need is a diode to function as the detector.