Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcvax!ukc!axion!galadriel!pcf
From: pcf@galadriel.bt.co.uk (Pete French)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: How can I recognize true ground?
Message-ID: <319@galadriel.bt.co.uk>
Date: 11 Aug 89 08:22:22 GMT
References: <1119@gtx.com>
Organization: RT6115, BTRL, Martlesham Heath, England
Lines: 29

From article <1119@gtx.com>, by al@gtx.com (Alan Filipski):
> In article  michael@xanadu.UUCP (Michael McClary) writes:
> ->
> ->(Story circulated when I was at UofMich EE school:  Bunch of freshman
> ->EEs at another school had bet going on whether you could kill
> ->somebody with a single dry cell.  Guy betting "no" put hands into
> ->two buckets of salt water, guy betting "yes" applied 1 1/2 between
> ->buckets.  They couldn't get "no" defibrilated.  R.I.P.)
> ->
> 
> Yikes.  I frequently test a 9-volt battery by touching the electrodes to
> my tongue.  Is this dangerous?

No : You are only running the current through the tip of your toungue. If you
put your hands into two buchets and applied the current directly accross your
body then it might be just a little risky though since trhe current would then
be flowing accross your heart.

I heard a similar story aabout a British University at which they were doing
_OFFICIAL_ research into electric shocks. They wanted to find out how much
current a person could *feel* (not to kill him). To do this they put a
volunteer into a tank of water with an electrode on him and earthed the other
end. They were going to start at 'negligible' voltage and gradually increase
it untill he could feel something.

With the first shock they killed him...


-Pete French.