Ken, Interesting that you say "I suspect just about anyone living in the civilized world in the latter half of the 20th or beginning of the 21st century has at one time or other experienced a one-handed shock." I took an informal survey a number of years ago was amazed to discover that although 100% of males have received Electrical shocks, less than 50% of females have ever received anything other than a Static discharge. I once witnessed a female receiving her first (electrical) shock as she grabbed the 400 volt cathode/grid leads of an electron tube. It was something to behold. I have had so many shocks (one resulted in a ride to the hospital) that I can now barely feel 115 VAC hand-to-hand. I used to design and repair HV equipment and had not enough respect for circuits below 1 kV. But, other than being somewhat immune to 115 VAC I don't seem to have any other after effects that I know of.
Dave Cuthbert From: owner-emc-p...@listserv.ieee.org [mailto:owner-emc-p...@listserv.ieee.org] On Behalf Of Ken Javor Sent: Thursday, December 02, 2004 4:25 PM To: emc-p...@ieee.org Subject: Re: Is one-handed electrical shock possible? There have been a great many anecdotal tales submitted, and I could add my own hair-raising adventures. I suspect just about anyone living in the civilized world in the latter half of the 20th or beginning of the 21st century has at one time or other experienced a one-handed shock. So the possibility exists, it is undeniable. What is less clear to me, and what I believe was the point of the original post, and which has not been answered at least to my understanding, is how does it happen? To my way of looking at it, the resistance/capacitance of the human body is not an issue; if you place mains potential across the body, current will flow and damage will ensue. What is interesting is that the one-handed shock can occur when the body is (again, to my understanding) ungrounded and potentially speaking, floating. The last time I got shocked I was doing something very similar to Mr. McInturff. Having for the third time bought a new (for me) home in Alabama, I was going through the ritual of rotating the electrical outlets. For some reason older homes in Alabama have the outlets installed with the safety ground jack up instead of down. Sometimes that is inconvenient, so I rotate them. Like Mr. McInturff, I didn't want to throw the breaker and was trying to be careful. I was sitting on the floor. The floor is covered with wall-to-wall carpet, which is likely man-made, say nylon or rayon, a pretty good insulator. Underneath the carpet is the pad, again insulator. Underneath the pad is the concrete slab. Probably a conductor at a high enough potential, but I would expect a pretty good insulator at 120 Vac. Well, I pulled a McInturff and got a good buzz. I don't know if it was surprise or muscular contraction, but my leg shot out and I almost broke something. I think 1 mA is supposed to elicit a "surprise" reaction. Someone on the list please correct me if I'm wrong. If 1 mA was coursing though my body, that means that the line-to-ground resistance total was only 120 kOhms. I can't account for that. Comments? Ken Javor This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to emc-p...@ieee.org Instructions: http://listserv.ieee.org/listserv/request/user-guide.html List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Ron Pickard: emc-p...@hypercom.com Scott Douglas emcp...@ptcnh.net For policy questions, send mail to: Richard Nute: ri...@ieee.org Jim Bacher: j.bac...@ieee.org All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to emc-p...@ieee.org Instructions: http://listserv.ieee.org/listserv/request/user-guide.html List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Ron Pickard: emc-p...@hypercom.com Scott Douglas emcp...@ptcnh.net For policy questions, send mail to: Richard Nute: ri...@ieee.org Jim Bacher: j.bac...@ieee.org All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc
