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[scourge728]

From the Darwin Award page

How, you might ask, with only a 9V battery? Easy. One of the "rules of thumb" that the Navy teaches is the 1-10-100 rule of current. This rule states that 1mA of current through the human body can be felt, 10mA of current is sufficient to make muscles contract to the point where you cannot let go of a power source, and 100mA is sufficient to stop the heart. Let's look at Ohm's law. Ohm's law (for DC systems - I will not discuss AC here) is written as E=IR, where E is voltage in volts, I is current in Amps, and R is resistance in Ohms.

When we did the experiment in the electrical safety class to determine our body's resistance, we found a resistance of 500K Ohms. Using 9V and 500K Ohms in the equation, we come up with a current of 18 microAmps, below the "feel" threshold of 1mA. However, removing the insulation of skin from our curious sailor here, the resistance through the very good conducting electrolytes of the body is sharply lower. Around 100 ohms, in fact, resulting in a current of 90mA - sufficient to stop our sailor's heart and kill him.

[hector13]

I remember hearing of some navy guy who tried to measure the voltage of the blood and such of a human body, so he stabbed himself with the detector he had been given, and then died from his heart stopping because of the electricty

I'm not sure that story's real tho. My electrician uncle said a 9v battery like the one that powered the device in the story can't kill you like that.

Blood is a much better conductor than your skin, and has the added benefit of going directly through the muscle that pumps it around the body.

[Kagus]

And then there's SS13, where handling an electrified grille with 360 megawatts going through it will give you not much more than a good spookin', and being directly hit by a lightning bolt can be resisted by wearing yellow gloves.

[Egan_BW]

The fact that they are yellow is naturally more important than the actual material.

[Doomblade187]

I remember hearing of some navy guy who tried to measure the voltage of the blood and such of a human body, so he stabbed himself with the detector he had been given, and then died from his heart stopping because of the electricty

I'm not sure that story's real tho. My electrician uncle said a 9v battery like the one that powered the device in the story can't kill you like that.

Blood is a much better conductor than your skin, and has the added benefit of going directly through the muscle that pumps it around the body.

Still, I suspect that he's received worse shocks, even with the blood factor. So, eh? He explained it much better than I do, given what he does.

The fact that they are yellow is naturally more important than the actual material.

Of course!

[Kagus]

I remember hearing of some navy guy who tried to measure the voltage of the blood and such of a human body, so he stabbed himself with the detector he had been given, and then died from his heart stopping because of the electricty

I'm not sure that story's real tho. My electrician uncle said a 9v battery like the one that powered the device in the story can't kill you like that.

Blood is a much better conductor than your skin, and has the added benefit of going directly through the muscle that pumps it around the body.

Still, I suspect that he's received worse shocks, even with the blood factor. So, eh? He explained it much better than I do, given what he does.

Consider your basic electrical wire: Putting the prongs of a multimeter onto the rubber insulation on the outside of the wire is most likely not going to do a whole lot. However, connecting the prongs directly to the copper wire itself on the inside will give you a vastly different reading/effect.

But to be fair, I thought it sounded a bit far-fetched as well... I didn't realize that blood was that good of a conductor.

Which makes me wonder... Do squids/octopuses suffer more severely from electrical shocks, due to their blood being copper-based rather than iron-based? I guess electric types really do have an advantage against water types...

[KittyTac]

The fact that they are yellow is naturally more important than the actual material.

No. They appear as "insulated gloves" if you color them yellow, but they do not insulate if you just colored them yellow. I learned it the hard way when someone gave me "free insulateds". I was low on health and went into crit and died. Trolling at its finest.

[Kagus]

The fact that they are yellow is naturally more important than the actual material.

No. They appear as "insulated gloves" if you color them yellow, but they do not insulate if you just colored them yellow. I learned it the hard way when someone gave me "free insulateds". I was low on health and went into crit and died. Trolling at its finest.

[/joke]

You can also recolor insulateds to hide the fact that you're running around with insulated gloves. I was a bit of a derp though, and picked red for my first time doing this. Red has special flavor text where they come out as "red insulated gloves", rather than actually hiding anything.

And there are of course other gloves that are naturally different colors and that insulate against electric shocks just as well as the traditional yellows. Doesn't change the fact that getting hit by a mid-air electrical arc should in no way be less damaging just because you're wearing rubber hand protection.

...how the hell does grounding even work on a space station anyways?

[Jopax]

Spoiler: Image may or may not work properly (click to show/hide)

[KittyTac]

The fact that they are yellow is naturally more important than the actual material.

No. They appear as "insulated gloves" if you color them yellow, but they do not insulate if you just colored them yellow. I learned it the hard way when someone gave me "free insulateds". I was low on health and went into crit and died. Trolling at its finest.

[/joke]

You can also recolor insulateds to hide the fact that you're running around with insulated gloves. I was a bit of a derp though, and picked red for my first time doing this. Red has special flavor text where they come out as "red insulated gloves", rather than actually hiding anything.

And there are of course other gloves that are naturally different colors and that insulate against electric shocks just as well as the traditional yellows. Doesn't change the fact that getting hit by a mid-air electrical arc should in no way be less damaging just because you're wearing rubber hand protection.

...how the hell does grounding even work on a space station anyways?

When I was playing a purple lizardperson, I colored the gloves purple and nobody noticed because they had the same color as my hands. SS13 is full of little tricks like that.

I also had fun hiding banana peels under large and innocuous items such as fire extinguishers and toolboxes. People didn't notice the peels until they slipped.

[Kagus]

Try and get your hands on some 0 potency banana peels. They're absolutely miniscule, so you can hide them under nothing more than a sheet of paper. Additionally, since the slip power is determined by potency, the slip they provide is so weak that the person never actually falls down... But it does play the sound and anyone walking over the peel will immediately hurl whatever they're holding out in front of them as if they had slipped.

EDIT: Actually relevant to the thread:

Kronar's blade sang! Not a catchy tune, but it got stuck in a few peoples' heads.

[Bumber]

Somebody necro'ed an old thread, and the image doesn't display anymore:

Fix is in place:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Thanks, I see why people come to these forums for help now.

Gee, thanks for your "help".

[hops]

EDIT: Actually relevant to the thread:

Kronar's blade sang! Not a catchy tune, but it got stuck in a few peoples' heads.

๋Jellena better ready her axe 'cause she got competition.

[Kagus]

Somebody necro'ed an old thread, and the image doesn't display anymore:

Fix is in place:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Thanks, I see why people come to these forums for help now.

Gee, thanks for your "help".

Reminds me of the time in India when I met a hammer.

[AzyWng]

Leaked HL3 footage