Electric shock

First of all, let me advise everyone to NEVER play/try to "fix" electrical appliances or anything wired to your electric grid on your own, unless you are a trained electrician like myself. If you still manage to electricute yourself, heres a few does and donts.

You know when you have been electrocuted. If you got shocked across the chest(felt the shock on both hands, hand and feet, head and feet, anyhting that is on opposite sides of your chest), CALL FOR AN AMBULANCE! You might just have gotten a shock through the heart. Theres not much thats needed for you to get heart problems. Even if you feel fine, you may litteraly drop dead any second. The adrenalin from the shock keeps your heart running forcefully. When the adrenaline stops, the heart may stop as well.

Thats why we got electricians people. They know how to prevent accidents.

If you are unsure where you got shocked, or only shocked a member of your body, call your doctor for advise. You might have inner/outer burns and should have it checked out soon.

If you see someone else get shocked and ends up unconcious.

Before you do anything, make sure that the victims body does not have contact with whatever electrocuted him/her, lest you want to end up the same way. Call 911 or similar, and start CPR. Watch out for burns. If the person is in contact with the conducting object and is shaking or is looking stiff, the person is stuck and is getting electrocuted. DONT TOUCH! Get a stick or some other NON conducting object and hit/wedge the person loose. Call ambulance and begin CPR if nessecary.

And a little education at the end.

Where you are in the world can matter greatly in regards to how much damage you might get. In most of Europe and Asia, they opperate with 400 Volt systems. These are the least dangerous, but will still kill you dead easily if an accident happens.

In Norway(and Romania I think...) we operate with 240 Volt. These are more dangerous and kills you even easier.

In the US, its my understanding that they operate with 110 Volt. This is the most dangerous, and is twice as dangerous as in Norway, and almost 4 times as dangerous as the rest of Europe.

Its not the voltage, but the amps that kills you. The lower the volts, the higher the amps, as well as the other way around.

The formula goes: Amps= Watts divided with volts.

So lets say you have a tea-kettle with 1500 Watts.

That would be: Amps=1500 Watts divided with 110 Volts. That makes over 13 amps. Considering 0.25 amps through the heart is considered instant death, you dont want to mess with this stuff.

Thats all folks!

Excellent! I'm pretty sure electric shocks are something my first aid course didn't cover, so this is really helpful.

Glad to be of help. Youd be surprised at how many people think the cartoon version of electrocution applies in the real world. You dont make funny noises or get a spiky 'fro, you die. Poof!

It's kind of funny. I have a story in the works in which a teenager was saved by an electric shock. He was running for his life and tripped, breaking an electrical cord, and the guy after him came into contact with the voltage (he survived). But given what you've said, I'm wondering about the attacker's chances of long-term survival.

Depends completely on what kind of cord, and where the cord hit him. He could have gotten a small sting and burn, and shrugged it off, or he could spontaniously combust into a charcoal statue^^ and anything in between.

It was in a shop classroom (yeah, I know, nice place to be fighting for your life). And the result, between the fall (imagine botching a flying tackle) and the shock was unconsciousness. Am I pretty close to realism?

Work shop...that would make it a closed curcuit. He would have to be ridiculously unlucky even the get shocked at all. To get shocked, you have to be connected to two phases, thats what makes the current. If you see inside a socket, theres two wires. You have to be in contact with both to get shock. 9999 times out of 10000, the the fuse would cut the current before the cord even started moving towards the bad guy...even the bang from the short cuircuit would be contained withing the fuse-box, and would not be very large. A more realistic scenario would be that the cord was lossened from it place, braking it slightly, putting some big metal contraption under voltage. Not all old workshop appliances have earth-fail protection. Touching that would cause immense pain, and most likely knock you out cold.

Another funny thing; You know the bad guys from "Bolt"? the ones with lightning gloves? Thats impossible too=P

I'm currecntly construckting a gauss gun, and I got electrocut several times already, even with the glooves on, and being very carefull. I got cut with the capacitors of a single use photo camera. Not nice, so be carefull with those.
That topic is very usefull for me, cuz I'm the genuine "stuff mender", and I'm dealing mostly with electric stuff. And I've got a question:
-CAn you be electrocut with something athat is NOT CONNECTED and shut down completely? Cuz once, I was making a cake, and after shutting down the mixer, and pulling the pulg off, when I toughed the contacts, I got electrocut. I wonder, why, cause, because it was completely shutted down, and unplugged.
Thanks.

Can be a lot of things, most likely, static electricity. What you touched, was it metal or plastic? Painted or unpainted?

Gloves arent always shock-proof, you would be surprised at what you can push electricity through=P

Silwer wrote:Work shop...that would make it a closed curcuit. He would have to be ridiculously unlucky even the get shocked at all. To get shocked, you have to be connected to two phases, thats what makes the current. If you see inside a socket, theres two wires. You have to be in contact with both to get shock. 9999 times out of 10000, the the fuse would cut the current before the cord even started moving towards the bad guy...even the bang from the short cuircuit would be contained withing the fuse-box, and would not be very large. A more realistic scenario would be that the cord was lossened from it place, braking it slightly, putting some big metal contraption under voltage. Not all old workshop appliances have earth-fail protection. Touching that would cause immense pain, and most likely knock you out cold.

Another funny thing; You know the bad guys from "Bolt"? the ones with lightning gloves? Thats impossible too=P

Yeah, there's a certain bit of flex for the improbable in my story. The characters are supers (the one who got zapped has ghost powers like Danny Phantom, to be precise), and the one being attacked... kinda had "Someone" looking out for him.

Admin wrote:

Silwer wrote:Work shop...that would make it a closed curcuit. He would have to be ridiculously unlucky even the get shocked at all. To get shocked, you have to be connected to two phases, thats what makes the current. If you see inside a socket, theres two wires. You have to be in contact with both to get shock. 9999 times out of 10000, the the fuse would cut the current before the cord even started moving towards the bad guy...even the bang from the short cuircuit would be contained withing the fuse-box, and would not be very large. A more realistic scenario would be that the cord was lossened from it place, braking it slightly, putting some big metal contraption under voltage. Not all old workshop appliances have earth-fail protection. Touching that would cause immense pain, and most likely knock you out cold.

Another funny thing; You know the bad guys from "Bolt"? the ones with lightning gloves? Thats impossible too=P

Yeah, there's a certain bit of flex for the improbable in my story. The characters are supers (the one who got zapped has ghost powers like Danny Phantom, to be precise), and the one being attacked... kinda had "Someone" looking out for him.

Well, in that case, I think a little artistic freedom is allowed^^

I touched the wires you plug in.Don't actually realise how it can be possible. I was using the glooves you use to work with toxic chemicals.
P.S. Nah, it wasn't static. It hurt a lotm, and I was touching it only for some seconds.

What material is those gloves made of?

I bet it was rubber. I think those just had a hole in them. I used a rubber-covered scissors for metal, and I got "electro cut" with those. I found out that they got a tiny-tiny hole in their rubber cover.

"Electro Cut"? You sure you wanna stand by that joke? XD

Well that small hole could be enough to kill ya if you were cutting something with more amps.

How' that said then?
Yeah. I'm currently checking all my tools with a lighter, the one with a lightning.

That "Electro Cut" pun was just "cute."

Thats it! DT, Suspension box, 3 minutes, NOW!