• fuck_u_spez_in_particular@lemmy.world
    1·
    3 hours ago

    I did that as a (stupid) kid. I did obviously survive. But it was one of the few sockets that wasn’t really protected with fuses, so the result was a power-outage for the whole street, and a few guys with fancy protective clothing (against high-voltage) came to fix this…

  • altphoto@lemmy.today
    234·
    2 days ago

    It’s literally impossible to kill yourself by sticking a fork into the outlet. The reason is simple. The path to ground only passes thru the fork.

    • Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de
      5·
      1 day ago

      If the live side makes contact first you have an issue though. Because then the path to ground passes through the fork, up the handle and through you. Then your muscles tense and you might not make the neutral side connect the other end fork anymore.

      • altphoto@lemmy.today
        11·
        1 day ago

        But if you don’t actually complete the circuit to ground, then current cannot actually pass through you, only voltage. You’ll feel a tingling. See if you can turn on an LED by connecting its ground lead to your carpet or tile floor.

        • Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de
          2·
          23 hours ago

          Well seems to me you do complete the circuit. With some 1000 Ohm resistance of your body, plus shoes depending on whether you’re wearing them and how you’re posed, plus whatever your floor provides to ground. Tile sounds ideal, but I’m not so sure about wood.

          I guess floor heating would not be using metal piping, so at least that’s no shortcut. Maybe rebar could be trouble, but probably the wooden flooring shouldn’t be resting directly on the rebar.

          I guess in most normal situations that would be enough resistance. I concede that point.

          • altphoto@lemmy.today
            1·
            23 hours ago

            Both tile and wood are insulators unless wet with an ionic liquid. And even wet you must reach a path to ground.

        • tfw_no_toiletpaper@lemmy.world
          2·
          1 day ago

          Wdym “the current cannot pass through you, only voltage” 😂, bro who taught you this.

          If you don’t exist in the worst case scenario (wet hands, barefoot on wet tiles or sum), you probably have a lot of resistances, skin contact, shoe sole, idk carpet. Since your body has only around 500-1000 ohms (I think) the voltage applied to the body would be way less. If your shoes got 10,000 ohms, they’d get 100 volts and you like 10. This scenario would be 10 milliamps then. Numbers out my ass, but you don’t get “voltage, but no current”. Except if you manage to raise your body’s internal resistance somehow.

          /tism off

          • altphoto@lemmy.today
            1·
            23 hours ago

            Oh maybe you don’t live in the US…our homes are made of wood and drywall. We literally never touch ground unless it’s a basement or a restroom connected with copper tubing.

          • altphoto@lemmy.today
            1·
            24 hours ago

            No, dude, I’m saying if you don’t completed the circuit, there’s only potential. You’ll only feel the changing potential as a tingling. Only when finally you take your shoes off and step on a wet steel bar that is buried into humid earth then you only then will your circuit be closed and all the various resistances you mentioned come into play. Else you will need two forks, one for each hand.

      • altphoto@lemmy.today
        3·
        2 days ago

        Then you’d have to wait patiently for it to pick up a bit. It takes a good fire to do you in.

    • ulterno@programming.devEnglish
      3·
      2 days ago

      Well, maybe if you are covered with petrol (gasoline) and you stick it in long enough for the bottom of the handle to get hot enough to ignite it.
      Of course, that is assuming that the Voltage is high enough to get the metal hot enough before the petrol evaporates away.

    • ch00f@lemmy.world
      21·
      1 day ago

      fu

      Fuses protect wires in the walls, not what you plug into the socket.

      If the tine in the neutral socket makes contact before live, it’ll probably just pop the fuse. Hot first, and you better hope it’s a GFCI.

      • Random_Character_A@lemmy.world
        2·
        10 hours ago

        So, we are a bit trollish today. I’ll match the mood.

        In your basic euro socket the safety latches don’t open unless you poke both holes at the same time.

        If you cut two middle spikes of a fork and manage to shove it in the socket, you’ll just short the phase to the neutral and blow a fuse. You’ll be part of a partial circuit and feel it, but most of the current will favor the direct “fork connection”.

        If you are in the United States of Dumbfuckistan and only have 120Vac in the socket, considering surface area of contact to the fork, you’ll probably only get little over 20mA running through you. It’ll take a long time to get a respiratory arrest. You’ll probably get bored and detach yourself by leaning back. Heart complications may still follow.

        凸(｀⌒´メ)凸