• rumba@lemmy.zip
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    15 hours ago

    Pshaw, even at LV, it’s a lay theory that is, at best, vastly incomplete and, at worst, demonstrably false.

    Electricity will flow through all paths, the most electricity will flow down the path of the least resistance.

    That arc is going up because the plasma is hot and the air is turbulent.

    • Zink
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      14 hours ago

      Yeah, maybe it needs a Hedberg-ism to get it across to people.

      Electricity takes the path of least resistance. It takes the other paths, but it takes the least resistance path too.

      • rumba@lemmy.zip
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        6 hours ago

        The problem I have with it is that it gives a false sense of security and how the world works. Most people think lightning rods attract the lightning and direct it into the ground because of this. 1/3 of the world has 220v and 110v connected directly into their showerhead without any idea why they don’t die from it.

  • RegalPotoo@lemmy.world
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    18 hours ago

    Everything is a wire if the voltage is high enough.

    Every machine is a smoke machine if you use it wrong enough.

    • veni_vedi_veni@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      I was interviewed for a position where lady handed me a pen and asked if it was a conductor.

      I replied: "if the voltage is high enough, yea. She scoffed. Needless to say, I didn’t get the job.

      • Zink
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        14 hours ago

        Honestly I think you gave the experienced adult answer to what was a high school or even middle school science question.

      • kreekybonez@lemmy.world
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        13 hours ago

        that just sounds like a weird interview.

        “you’re qualified for this position if, and only if, you can answer a useless question with only a rudimentary understanding of the subject and no critical thought”

        if true, you dodged a bullet

    • ThePyroPython@lemmy.world
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      12 hours ago

      Oi! As an engineer I worked damn hard to trap that magic smoke in the machine only for you to let it out and try perfectly good components. Treat your machines with respect, they’re getting smarter by the day and they’re forgetting less and less!

          • ulterno
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            15 hours ago

            In the least, it had 3 types of shit:

            • dog shit
            • human shit
            • bullshit

            Does better as a shit zoo for sure

  • wewbull@feddit.uk
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    1 day ago

    This is particularly applicable around downed power cables. Do NOT approach. You don’t need to touch it to become the wire.

    For example: in LA right now

    • MataVatnik@lemmy.worldOP
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      24 hours ago

      dO nOT toUch the DoWn wIres uuuum I have MY RIGHTS to turn myself into a gas station hotdogs thankyouverymuch

    • Estebiu@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      13 hours ago

      For downed, you mean just a power cable that’s down on the ground but otherwise intact, or he’s only dangerous when cut?

    • tibi@lemmy.world
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      12 hours ago

      Especially dangerous if it’s a high voltage wire. Even standing close you can become the least resistant path to earth.

    • EtherWhack@lemmy.world
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      22 hours ago

      You have to keep in mind that the resistance from one foot to your other is going to be less than dry earth between your strides. This means if you are walking toward a downed power line, you may inadvertently walk within its path to its ground and the voltage could actually travel through you.

      https://youtu.be/7BbGzTqTNxc

      • Saleh@feddit.org
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        21 hours ago

        Why is this not knowledge taught in school?

        It is the first time i hear about it and i have never thought of it, yet it makes total sense and could make the difference between life and death in a storm damaged area.

  • frank@sopuli.xyz
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    22 hours ago

    “it’s current not voltage that kills you”

    High voltage: “Por que no los dos?”

    • MataVatnik@lemmy.worldOP
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      22 hours ago

      High voltage: “hey bestie, how would you like a ✨️new and improved ✨️ nervous system?”

    • ulterno
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      15 hours ago

      To be precise, it’s the high amount of heat, electrolysis and other chemical reactions that kill you.

      If you were a prefect conductor, you wouldn’t have a problem.

    • WolfLink@sh.itjust.works
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      22 hours ago

      I always thought that was a dumb saying because voltage is specifically what allows there to be a lethal current.

      • mexicancartel@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        9 hours ago

        Its the “power” that kills you. Power depends on you as well as voltage.(Your resistance determine the current and time period of current flow also matters)

      • candybrie@lemmy.world
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        21 hours ago

        I think people just don’t understand ohm’s law. They seem to think voltage and current are unrelated to each other.

        • booly@sh.itjust.works
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          16 hours ago

          Voltage and current are related, of course, but Ohm’s law is just a simplification of circuit theory for static circuits, and the version most are taught early on assume zero inductance and zero capacitance in the circuit. Drop in an alternating current, some capacitors and inductors, and you’ve got yourself a more complex situation, literally, with the scalar real number representing resistance replaced with the complex number representing impedance.

          And when you have time variance that isn’t a simple sinusoidal wave of electric potential coming from a source, even the definition of the word “voltage” starts requiring vector calculus to even be a coherent definition.

          So when I take a simple battery of DC cells to create a low voltage power source, I can still induce current using some transformers and inductors (which store energy in magnetic field) and abruptly breaking open the circuit so that the current still arcs across high resistance air. That’s the basic principle of how a spark plug works. In those cases, you’re creating immense voltages for a tiny amount of time, but there’s never any real risk of significant current being pushed through any part of a person’s body. And as soon as you draw off some of the current, the voltage immediately drops as you deplete the stored energy wherever it is in the system.

          And anything designed to deliver an electric shock to a person (or animal) tends to be high voltage, low current. Tasers, electric fences, etc.

          So it’s current that matters for safety. A high voltage doesn’t always induce a high current. And current can cause problems even at relatively low voltages.

        • TheFogan
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          20 hours ago

          I suppose it’s half right. Obviously OHMs law is the triangle.

          So you get a high voltage, running through a high resistance, it won’t kill you. The problem is people interpret it in a way that seems to think raising the voltage without raising the resistance is just fine.

          • candybrie@lemmy.world
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            18 hours ago

            It’s kinda hard to raise your body’s resistance a ton outside of not making good contact (e.g. wearing rubber boots/gloves). Things like your skin being moist lower resistance, but I’m not sure it’s really that much of a safety factor when dealing with high voltage.

            • TheFogan
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              17 hours ago

              I think the general gist is… not as much your body’s resistance as the circuit as a whole. IE a high voltage power source traveling through a high resistance circuit, vs touching the high voltage source directly.

              It’s about the full path the electricity takes (not counting any portion that you may be cutting out if you are giving it a faster path to ground allowing it to bypass some resistance), rather than just the voltage of the source.

              That’s the point that’s trying to be made in that statement, the voltage is indeed a critical part of the equasion. Just not the sole portion of importance.

      • druidjaidan@lemmy.world
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        17 hours ago

        It’s a very dumb saying. If you don’t have the volts you won’t get the amps to kill you that’s ohms law.

        However, there are plenty of harmless high voltage scenarios as well. Situations with high voltage, but no power.

        So really you need both.