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A. deadly if capacitors are charged and you touch with one hand + and the other -.
B. If you don't touch anything with hand - no problem. But don't short-cuircuit lterminals with the screw driver!!! Molten metal can harm you!
If you discharge the caps from one part of your finger to another part of your finger an inch or so away, you will just burn your finger, and possible damage some nerves in it.
If you discharge the caps via your finger to your feet (assuming the flash unit is grounded) or other hand, the current will flow through your torso, and you will likely stop your heart.
If you short the caps with a screwdriver, you will buying a new screwdriver.
Yes but putting your fingers across a 12v car battery that could potentially deliver five hundred amps is not going to do much.
Putting your fingers across 1200v that can deliver 10mA would be very different, and possibly lethal if it stops your heart, and puts you into ventricular fibrillation.
So Big current potentials are only dangerous when the voltage is high enough to penetrate (my hands) easily? Of course if they were sweaty, this jump would be easier.
Oh! And about the big capacitors, I've made a good taser from some before! Seriously, for safety, not shocking friends!!!
I also used some in my wireless fireworks launcher project, to ignite my e-matches quickly
I doubt 10mA would kill you unless you were really unlucky.
The short circuit current of the 2.4kV capacitor will be 1/8th of the 300V 800µF capacitor because of Ohm's law. Not that this matters because it's not the impedance of the capacitor that'll limit the current but the human body.
The 12.5µF capacitor charged to 2.4kV will cause a much higher current to flow than 10mA, probably a few Amps or higher for a split second.
The 12.5µF charged to 2.4kV is much more dangerous, because a higher voltage will cause more current to flow, the energy would be dumped into your body faster and more of the energy will effectively be transferred to your body.
300V is unlikely to kill you anyway, even if it's a steady DC supply, the current will also decay to a non-lethal although still painful level, when the voltage drops below about 100V or so and at this point not much more damage will be done. Still, a large capacitor charged to 300V is potentially lethal so you should exercise caution by discharging the capacitor using a suitable resistor before touching it.
Yes, and the same article Wikipedia also goes on to say:
"a much lower current of less than 1 mA (AC or DC) can cause fibrillation"
Electrocution really means stopping the heart.
Some people can sustain quite horrific electrical burns and still survive.
While others have heart attacks or go into ventricular fibrillation and die quite easily.
I used to work in the biomedical department of a large city teaching hospital, and cardiology and electrical safety in hospitals is a very interesting field of study.
Electrocution is an especially real risk in surgery and intensive care, where highly conductive patient electrodes can be attached to various parts of the body and connected to completely different pieces of mains powered equipment.
Also catheters and intravenous infusion pumps have very good electrical connection to the patient, and even very small leakage currents can be quite lethal if they can travel directly through the heart muscle.
The external skin can be dry, and often is a very poor conductor.
But internal body tissue, and body fluids are very conductive.
So beware, electricity can in some circumstances be far more dangerous than you may think.
If the current has a direct pathway to the heart (e.g., via a cardiac catheter or other kind of electrode), a much lower current of less than 1 mA (AC or DC) can cause fibrillation.
Also catheters and intravenous infusion pumps have very good electrical connection to the patient, and even very small leakage currents can be quite lethal if they can travel directly through the heart muscle.
Sorry you're right about that, I should've read the whole post.
Still, my point stands, how many people play with electricity when an intravenous catheters inside them?
Fair point if you're working in a hospital but if you're not, it isn't a problem.
Medical equipment has to have a very low leakage current (in the order of 10s of µA) in order to be approved. A medical grade isolation transformer is also often used to power medical equipment where, as you know, even the slightest current could be deadly.
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