Immune to Electrocution

[LarryFine]

A circuit for some of you to consider.

I don't have the time (patience) to figure it out, but, I believe that the zener becomes irrelevant when the voltage across it drops below its forward voltage.

 

[mivey]

If he had claimed that he was electrocuted, I'd have called him a liar.

The missing arm was missing?

 

[rattus]

100808-1517 EST

A circuit for some of you to consider.

A 1N4733 Zener diode with 10 MA supplied to it. The measured voltage across the Zener is 5.01 V. What is the resistance of the Zener diode at this operating point?

Next put this circuit in a black box with two terminals connected to the Zener diode. With a 574 ohm load on the terminals the voltage drops to 4.98 V. What is the internal resistance of this voltage source over this operating range?

.

This is an example of dynamic resistance which is defined as,

rd = dv/di

or we may approximate rd as,

rd = delta v/delta i,

I compute about 3.5 Ohms.

 

[ronaldrc]

It is conceivable that Ron's sweaty body and shirt shunted most of the lamp current. But, no human could do that without receiving a severe shock.

Rattus I said it felt like a horse kicked me,it was a severe shock but no pernament damage,

I've always been a little wacky

 

[rattus]

Rattus I said it felt like a horse kicked me,it was a severe shock but no pernament damage,

I've always been a little wacky

Been bitten by a horse, but never kicked. Did get across a 400Vdc supply one time. Made me woozy for a few minutes.

 

[kwired]

Saw show last night

Saw show last night

Seen show mentioned in OP last night. Very uneducated people when it comes to electrical concepts, at least what they are trying to portray as facts.

They showed him holding the leads of an ohm meter vs other people and concluded his skin had a higer resistance and made him less vulnerable. That makes some sense, but it would also make him less conductive to carry the current required to power the loads that were presumably passing through his body.

 

[mull982]

After watching this video my two thoughts are:

1) If indeed his body had 1Mohm of resistance across it and was connected in series with a light bulb which can be seen as a constant resistance load then the current in this circuit would only be .00022A. This amount of current would surely be no where enough to light a light bulb, not to mention there would be almost no voltage dropped across the light. I dont know that this amount of current would be enough to cause any harm to the body.

2) With the 3A applicance which can be seen as a constant power load the load is going to pull 3A regardless of the circuit in front of it. The 1Mohm resistance of his body will not do anything to limit the current however as others mentioned all of the voltage in the circuit will drop across his body and there would be nothing left at the load to operate the apliance. The load would pull 3A regardless however with no voltage it should not even operate.

 

[rattus]

After watching this video my two thoughts are:

2) With the 3A appliance which can be seen as a constant power load the load is going to pull 3A regardless of the circuit in front of it. The 1Mohm resistance of his body will not do anything to limit the current however as others mentioned all of the voltage in the circuit will drop across his body and there would be nothing left at the load to operate the apliance. The load would pull 3A regardless however with no voltage it should not even operate.

You sure about that mull? The body resistance would limit the current in either case, just like a rheostat dims lights and controls motor speed.

 

[hurk27]

After watching this video my two thoughts are:

1) If indeed his body had 1Mohm of resistance across it and was connected in series with a light bulb which can be seen as a constant resistance load then the current in this circuit would only be .00022A. This amount of current would surely be no where enough to light a light bulb, not to mention there would be almost no voltage dropped across the light. I don't know that this amount of current would be enough to cause any harm to the body.

2) With the 3A appliance which can be seen as a constant power load the load is going to pull 3A regardless of the circuit in front of it. The 1Mohm resistance of his body will not do anything to limit the current however as others mentioned all of the voltage in the circuit will drop across his body and there would be nothing left at the load to operate the appliance. The load would pull 3A regardless however with no voltage it should not even operate.

Resistance is current limiting.
A 1,000,000 ohm resistor in series with a 73.3 ohm resistor(3 amp appliance @ 220 volts) will equal a 1,000,073.3 ohm resistor, and allow only .00021998 amps which is less then without the appliance in series.

Another words: What rattus said:grin:

 

[ronaldrc]

Hello

You remember I told you I think my bodies resistance is somewere between
90 k ohm to 150 k ohm or so. And I also think it drops drastically as the voltage increases.

We all are some how forgetting basic electricity. I say this because where not putting 2 and 2 togather to equal 4.

As simple as it is If Mr. conductors or anyones elses body resistance was 1 to 1.5 mega oms. Well you simple could not receive a bad shock let alone a fatal shock.

Don't forget one simple thing we learned in basic electricity current is equal in all parts of a series circuit.

So if we are a 1.5 meg. ohm resistor and in series with a 120 volt light bulb we would receive a 8 milliamp shock.

 

[hurk27]

Hello

You remember I told you I think my bodies resistance is somewere between
90 k ohm to 150 k ohm or so. And I also think it drops drastically as the voltage increases.
We all are some how forgetting basic electricity. I say this because where not putting 2 and 2 together to equal 4.

As simple as it is If Mr. conductors or anyones Else's body resistance was 1 to 1.5 mega oms. Well you simple could not receive a bad shock let alone a fatal shock.

Don't forget one simple thing we learned in basic electricity current is equal in all parts of a series circuit.

So if we are a 1.5 meg. ohm resistor and in series with a 120 volt light bulb we would receive a 8 milliamp shock.

So you are a human metal oxide varistor? (MOV):grin:

 

[Ted Hoffman]

Have a friend dad who was a industrial electrician and he could touch energized conductors up to about 240 volt with no ill effects. he is still alive at 96 and was doing fairly good until about 3 years ago.

Teddy

 

[ronaldrc]

I recken since you put it that way.
Hey I could be a surge pertector couldn't I.

Now I guess everyone is going to come on here and denie that current is the
same in all parts of a series circuit.

Is anyone elses computer runnuing as slow as my tonight its runnig like a snell.
I don't know if its comcast or the whole web?

 

[donaldelectrician]

Immune to electrocution

Immune to electrocution

That ain't nothing.....here in California , we got the Terminator.

 

[ronaldrc]

Teddy

I worked with an old electrician about my age in Hickory NC. Hosp. He would take his index finger and thumb and run it up and down two 480 volt busses in the main switch gear.

This was one of those people that never broke a sweat, he said it tingled a little, now he did tell me he could not put much pressure on it or it would eat him up.

He wanted me to try it but I wouldn't and I don't recommend anyone else doing it.

 

[ronaldrc]

yelp you got all those super dudes

 

[rattus]

Hello

You remember I told you I think my bodies resistance is somewere between
90 k ohm to 150 k ohm or so. And I also think it drops drastically as the voltage increases.

We all are some how forgetting basic electricity. I say this because where not putting 2 and 2 togather to equal 4.

As simple as it is If Mr. conductors or anyones elses body resistance was 1 to 1.5 mega oms. Well you simple could not receive a bad shock let alone a fatal shock.

Don't forget one simple thing we learned in basic electricity current is equal in all parts of a series circuit.

So if we are a 1.5 meg. ohm resistor and in series with a 120 volt light bulb we would receive a 8 milliamp shock.

Body resistance varies greatly depending on the area of contact. I can hold the ends of a 120V extension cord between my dry fingers and feel a serious tingle. Or, I can crawl under a house with a faulty metal cased power tool and kill myself while lying on my back. Or, I could be standing in an ungrounded baptismal with a faulty heater and kill myself by grabbing a grounded microphone as happened in Waco, TX a while back. So body resistance cannot be considered a constant.

I recall getting a little jolt through a pair of pliers while splicing a phone line. 48Vdc unless the phone is ringing.

 

[ronaldrc]

Rattus

Been there and done about all of that.

Remember how we use to take an old 8 ohm audio transformer and turn it around and shock someone with the high winding? I think all of us curious about electrical things did that.

And remember sometimes the kickback off the battery side 1.5 volts could lay a good shock on you.

 

[hurk27]

I recall getting a little jolt through a pair of pliers while splicing a phone line. 48Vdc unless the phone is ringing.

Funny you should mention that, I was (I know bad for the teeth)
stripping some phone wires with my teeth once, and one wire was against my nose, when a call came in, wow, it hurt like the dickens, 96 volt ring current in my mouth didn't feel good.
never again.

 

[rattus]

Rattus

Been there and done about all of that.

Remember how we use to take an old 8 ohm audio transformer and turn it around and shock someone with the high winding? I think all of us curious about electrical things did that.

And remember sometimes the kickback off the battery side 1.5 volts could lay a good shock on you.

I was working with a HV inverter ages ago. 1.5Vdc to 10KVdc. I would charge myself up through a resistor and walk around on my Hush Puppies and shock people. I was a walking capacitor. No worse than the shock you might get from shuffling across a carpet.