At 06:40 AM 13/02/2012, you wrote:
> > 1. I know that these things have extremely low ESR and can=20
> therefore deliver an
> > enormous power output. Considering that one has normal skin (not=20
> too dry, not wet),
> > how dangerous is one of those capacitors charged to 2.5V?
>
>Potentially (pun not intended) very dangerous (see below).
>
> >
> > 2. Approximately at what voltage does it start becoming dangerous?
>
>Many years ago now (I heard the story about 35-40 years ago) there=20
>was some investigation going on into skin conduction. One particular=20
>subject had the skin on his hands washed very clean and then dried=20
>very dry, before a 1.5V cell was connected between his hands. The=20
>story goes that because the surface moisture had been removed the=20
>current went through the sub-cutaneous tissue and shocked his heart,=20
>to a point where it stopped.
>
>I have no references to back this up, the story was told to me=20
>verbally umpteenth hand, so I cannot provide any references, but ma=20
>prepared to believe that it would be possible.

While I don't doubt that subcutaneous probes placed in close proximity
to the heart (on either side) could  cause fibrillation with relatively
low voltage (perhaps as low as 2.7V), if you really wanted to kill someone
I would think bludgeoning them with the capacitor itself would be a more
efficient approach.

--sp

--=20
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