Merck manual on dealing with electrical injuries

[Chuckt]

Electrical injury is damage caused by generated electrical current passing through the body. Symptoms may include skin burns, damage to internal organs and other soft tissues, cardiac arrhythmias, and respiratory arrest. Diagnosis is by history, clinical criteria and selective laboratory testing. Treatment is supportive, with aggressive care for severe injuries.

http://www.merckmanuals.com/professiona ... =&sc=&alt=

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/7 ... w2aab6b2b2

The moral of the story is don't get electrocuted.

[Garth]

I grew up in a different country which used 220 volts, concrete tile floors (with no semi-insulating wood underneath), and the electrical standards were not as good. (Concrete is never totally dry, and it makes a pretty good conductor.) No outlets were grounded or polarized. If you were barefoot and reached into a lamp shade to turn the lamp on and there was something not properly insulated, the bite was really terrible. I got it a few times as a kid. Later as an adult, I did some work in another country and found the same situation, so I kept my rubber-soled shoes on anytime I'd be touching anything electrical, to prevent making a circuit and getting shocked.

When I was in school, the teacher said you could get killed with as little as 60V, and the worst frequency was 60Hz; so when they chose the household line voltage and frequency, they picked the worst frequency, and doubled the voltage just to be sure.

[brad]

I wonder why 60hz is the worst?

Could it be something to do with the resonant frequency of the human body or something along those lines perhaps?

[Chuckt]

I wonder why 60hz is the worst?

Could it be something to do with the resonant frequency of the human body or something along those lines perhaps?

I see it as a physics question. I would have to dig out some notes from college.

If you could see or hear the inaudible wave of electricity without a scope, what would it look like? How would you measure it? How far would it travel? What would the pressure be?

You might find this answer in magnetism (it is a hunch).


If you had to use a rope to measure frequency and length, what would a sound look like? In the first few seconds of this video, you see a rope that is moving with a wave. What would that rope look like physically if it represented electricity and if the air was conductive and the electricity could travel like sound?



I would have to drag out my notes from college.

[brad]

Ah yes, this is exactly the stuff I've been teaching these last few weeks!

transmission lines, standing waves, antennas, wavelengths, electro magnetic radiation! fascinating stuff