solarwind wrote: > People say current kills. So what happens if you push 1 mA through an > LED @ 1000 V? Will the LED blow? I don't know who said that in what context, but if it's about people being killed, it has not much to do with LEDs. Both scenarios have to do with the fact that voltage and current are tied together by the impedance of the device you're looking at. (It's called "Ohm's Law", which I think is kind of a misnomer. It's not a law; there aren't any laws in science (which is a good thing -- there are no lawyers either :). It's more something like "Ohm's Definition", as it defines the relationship between voltage, current and impedance.) As far as LEDs go, if you put 1000V directly across a LED, there will flow much more current than 1mA (for a short time). If you push 1mA through it, there will be much less voltage across the LED than 1000V. Can't have it both; they are tied together by the LED's impedance. As far as people go, their impedance varies wildly, especially the contact and ground resistances. Given that you are touching some source, one thing that is important for the danger you're exposed to is the current that is flowing through you. (Another thing is where the current is flowing through.) If you're well isolated from ground, you can touch a higher voltage source, because the higher ground resistance reduces the current that is flowing. But, of course, in the end it also comes down to current and voltage being tied together by the impedance. As approximation, talking about the "current that kills" makes sense in certain contexts. Gerhard -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist