On Thu, 16 Nov 2006 21:32:09 -0600, Sam E wrote:


On Fri, 17 Nov 2006 02:34:57 +0000 (UTC), (Don
Klipstein) wrote:

In article et, Tom
Horne, Electrician wrote:
wrote:
We have all heard the horrors of tossing a toaster or other appliance
in a filled bathtub. Well, I dont understand this now. A friend told
me that he had to replace the shower valve in his tub. He replaced
it, leaving his tools and a plugged in trouble light in the tub when
he went out to the pump house to turn the water back on. The problem,
he never turned the tub faucets off. When he got back in the house
the tub was almost ready to overflow. and the trouble light was under
water except the bulb which was floating and still lit. He said he
immediately unplugged it. (the drain was shut because he was afraid a
screw would go down). How can this be? Why did a breaker not trip?
He said the socket of the light was filled with water too, because he
took it apart to dry it out. He said his electric drill was also
under water, but not plugged in. He took that apart too.

It takes around thirty milliamperes; that's three tenths of an ampere;
to kill, sixteen amperes to trip the breaker on overload, and up to
seventy five amperes to trip it magnetically via it's instantaneous
trip. Does that answer your question?

30 milliamperes is 3 hundredths of an ampere.

- Don Klipstein )

Three tenths of an ampere could kill 10 people in parallel

Or an unlimited number of people in series. :-p