14 Mar
2013
14 Mar
'13
7:24 a.m.
On Mar 14, 2013, at 3:41 AM, Mouse <mouse at rodents-montreal.org> wrote:
So can 120V...all it needs to do is push enough current through you to
convulse the wrong muscles and/or stop your heart. The only reason
3.3V is safe in this respect is that it requires very good contact to
push much current through a human body, better than is reasonably
foreseeable. Possibly better than is possible; I don't know the danger
threshold for current, nor the resistivity of human flesh. 120V can do
this; if contact is good - eg, if your skin is wet with dirty (ie,
conductive) water - even lower voltages (48V? 24V? please don't any of
you find out in person!) can push enough current to be dangerous.
On the other hand, we routinely experience ESD shocks of multiple
kilovolts during a dry winter. The key is that there's not nearly
enough energy built up in most of those shocks to convulse your
heart (unless it were directly applied, I guess). It is, of
course, enough energy to blow up transistors in an IC, and WAY
more voltage than necessary to cross a polysilicon barrier.
- Dave
Pretty much anything that can deliver
hundreds-to-thousands of watts
can be quite deadly. ([...] 100A at 3.3V [...]. Okay, probably not
truly _deadly_, but certainly pretty harsh.)
Well, 3.3V at 100A will possibly burn
you but 3KV can kill you
outright [...]