I seem to remember someone telling me it was worse when the mains power was
D.C.
your involuntary muscle spasm would be in one direction, i.e. ON to the
power.
With A.C. the spasms are ON/OFF, more of a chance to "unhook" yourself from
the relevant parts.



-----Original Message-----
From: pic microcontroller discussion list
[mailto:PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU]On Behalf Of Roland
Sent: 21 February 2004 21:04
To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject: Re: [EE:] curious Live wire experiment


I was told; If you must test something by touching, always use the back of
your hand(either?), because the reflex tendency will be to grasp, and so
you'll pull away rather than take a good grip!

And my best; when I was a kid I got an old valve scope, bust, and had it on
my desk, cover off. After sitting on the bed for a while mulling on how to
fix it, I leant forward and grabbed the corner of the scope to pull myself
up. Right where the mains switch was! Well there was a flash, a puff of
smoke and I had two neat holes burnt into my index finger. Was sore for
days.

At 08:32 PM 21/02/04 +0000, you wrote:
>I remember being told to always test something (if you absolutely have to)
>with your left hand behind your back. The chances of the current running
>down through your heart are less likely if you get zapped with your right
>hand.
>
>I must personally admit to a bit of "brain in neutral" when I was at
>college. This was around 1980, I had an old instrument panel power supply
>controlling my CB radio. +12v 20A or so (IIRC). I touched the side and got
a
>"mains" shock. I then proceded to touch all around the case to see if it
was
>all "live", needless to say it was. I thought afterwards how stupid this
was
>as the power supply was in a metal case ... DUH!
>
>But back to the 240/110v issue, I have probably had more than my fair share
>of electric shocks for various reasons and I'm still alive - actually there
>must be a mental condition for this - I actually like the feeling <gulp>,
>but then I blame my mother :)
>
Regards
Roland Jollivet


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