On Fri, 27 Jan 2012 10:53:10 -0600, wrote:

Most people know that dropping a cord or appliance that is plugged into
an outlet into a bathtub filled with water will electrocute the person
in the tub. Yet, you can drop a low voltage item such as a flashlight
with batteries in the tub and no one will be hurt. Even a set up jumper
cables connected to a car battery would not likely do anything, or might
just tingle a little (never tried this, but I've handled plenty battery
cables while standing on wet soil in wet shoes and never felt a thing).

I don't think direct current tingles.

Not that I'm planning to test this, but what would happen if a large
capacitor, charged with 200 volts or more was tossed into a filled
bathtub while someone was in the tub? (By large capacitor, I dont mean
the size, but rather, I mean a large capacity, such as 500 MF or one
Farad or more....).

I see no reason this would ever occur, but I'm just curious.

[NOTE: This could be DC or AC]. DC capacitors are used in electronics,
while the AC type are motor start capacitors.

I call them polarized and non-polarized.

micky wrote:
On Fri, 27 Jan 2012 10:53:10 -0600, wrote:

Most people know that dropping a cord or appliance that is plugged into
an outlet into a bathtub filled with water will electrocute the person
in the tub. Yet, you can drop a low voltage item such as a flashlight
with batteries in the tub and no one will be hurt. Even a set up jumper
cables connected to a car battery would not likely do anything, or might
just tingle a little (never tried this, but I've handled plenty battery
cables while standing on wet soil in wet shoes and never felt a thing).

I don't think direct current tingles.

Not that I'm planning to test this, but what would happen if a large
capacitor, charged with 200 volts or more was tossed into a filled
bathtub while someone was in the tub? (By large capacitor, I dont mean
the size, but rather, I mean a large capacity, such as 500 MF or one
Farad or more....).

I see no reason this would ever occur, but I'm just curious.

[NOTE: This could be DC or AC]. DC capacitors are used in electronics,
while the AC type are motor start capacitors.

I call them polarized and non-polarized.


There are polarized, back to back polarized caps used for ac, like in
speaker crossover networks and other things. Most caps used in electronics
are ac or dc, meaning non polarized, except some non polarized have mark to
indicate outer foil.
The others are polarized because they have a liquid filling to obtain high
capacity.

Dc is typically more dangerous. I still remember grabbing hold of a high
current 500 vdc source in my ham transmitter. I also remember sticking my
finger in the antenna socket of my spark gap transmitter, of a toy bus I
had when young.

My mother told me of the day I was pouring water into a lamp socket, and i
said it made a funny noise.

Greg

"gregz" wrote in message
...
micky wrote:
On Fri, 27 Jan 2012 10:53:10 -0600, wrote:

Most people know that dropping a cord or appliance that is plugged into
an outlet into a bathtub filled with water will electrocute the person
in the tub. Yet, you can drop a low voltage item such as a flashlight
with batteries in the tub and no one will be hurt. Even a set up jumper
cables connected to a car battery would not likely do anything, or might
just tingle a little (never tried this, but I've handled plenty battery
cables while standing on wet soil in wet shoes and never felt a thing).

I don't think direct current tingles.

Not that I'm planning to test this, but what would happen if a large
capacitor, charged with 200 volts or more was tossed into a filled
bathtub while someone was in the tub? (By large capacitor, I dont mean
the size, but rather, I mean a large capacity, such as 500 MF or one
Farad or more....).

I see no reason this would ever occur, but I'm just curious.

[NOTE: This could be DC or AC]. DC capacitors are used in electronics,
while the AC type are motor start capacitors.

I call them polarized and non-polarized.


There are polarized, back to back polarized caps used for ac, like in
speaker crossover networks and other things. Most caps used in electronics
are ac or dc, meaning non polarized, except some non polarized have mark
to
indicate outer foil.
The others are polarized because they have a liquid filling to obtain high
capacity.

Dc is typically more dangerous. I still remember grabbing hold of a high
current 500 vdc source in my ham transmitter. I also remember sticking my
finger in the antenna socket of my spark gap transmitter, of a toy bus I
had when young.

My mother told me of the day I was pouring water into a lamp socket, and i
said it made a funny noise.

Greg

I got a kick out of feeding either AC or reverse DC into a small
electrolytic capacitor. Something less than an inch long will go off like a
firecracker and the metal covering will fly across the room. In those days,
I had lots of used capacitors stripped off old electronic (nixie tube type)
calculators.

On 1/27/2012 9:11 PM, EXT wrote:

"gregz" wrote in message
...

micky wrote:
On Fri, 27 Jan 2012 10:53:10 -0600, wrote:

Most people know that dropping a cord or appliance that is plugged into
an outlet into a bathtub filled with water will electrocute the person
in the tub. Yet, you can drop a low voltage item such as a flashlight
with batteries in the tub and no one will be hurt. Even a set up jumper
cables connected to a car battery would not likely do anything, or
might
just tingle a little (never tried this, but I've handled plenty battery
cables while standing on wet soil in wet shoes and never felt a thing).

I don't think direct current tingles.

Not that I'm planning to test this, but what would happen if a large
capacitor, charged with 200 volts or more was tossed into a filled
bathtub while someone was in the tub? (By large capacitor, I dont mean
the size, but rather, I mean a large capacity, such as 500 MF or one
Farad or more....).

I see no reason this would ever occur, but I'm just curious.

[NOTE: This could be DC or AC]. DC capacitors are used in electronics,
while the AC type are motor start capacitors.

I call them polarized and non-polarized.


There are polarized, back to back polarized caps used for ac, like in
speaker crossover networks and other things. Most caps used in
electronics
are ac or dc, meaning non polarized, except some non polarized have
mark to
indicate outer foil.
The others are polarized because they have a liquid filling to obtain
high
capacity.

Dc is typically more dangerous. I still remember grabbing hold of a high
current 500 vdc source in my ham transmitter. I also remember sticking my
finger in the antenna socket of my spark gap transmitter, of a toy bus I
had when young.

My mother told me of the day I was pouring water into a lamp socket,
and i
said it made a funny noise.

Greg

I got a kick out of feeding either AC or reverse DC into a small
electrolytic capacitor. Something less than an inch long will go off
like a firecracker and the metal covering will fly across the room. In
those days, I had lots of used capacitors stripped off old electronic
(nixie tube type) calculators.

Reminds me of the time I brought the little kid out of my boss. I had
him hooking up small electrolytic caps to 120VAC via an extension cord
and out a door. We kept increasing the size and it didn't take too long
before they didn't explode, they just tripped the 20amp breaker. Never
forget when he told me "what ever you do, don't tell my wife!".

On Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:11:33 -0500, EXT wrote:
I got a kick out of feeding either AC or reverse DC into a small
electrolytic capacitor. Something less than an inch long will go off
like a firecracker and the metal covering will fly across the room.

Heh, we used to do that too at school in the electronics lab - 240VAC
would make them go bang quite nicely.

In
those days, I had lots of used capacitors stripped off old electronic
(nixie tube type) calculators.

I love Nixie stuff. I had a big old calculator (IME 86) with a Nixie
display for a while, but didn't keep it when I move to the US (decided it
was too heavy to ship). Hopefully at some point I'll find something
similar this side of the Atlantic!

I did pull some Nixies from some old grain analysis equipment, which will
probably end up as a clock display one day (possibly one based on neon
tube logic)

cheers

Jules

"Jules Richardson" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:11:33 -0500, EXT wrote:
I got a kick out of feeding either AC or reverse DC into a small
electrolytic capacitor. Something less than an inch long will go off
like a firecracker and the metal covering will fly across the room.

Heh, we used to do that too at school in the electronics lab - 240VAC
would make them go bang quite nicely.

In
those days, I had lots of used capacitors stripped off old electronic
(nixie tube type) calculators.

I love Nixie stuff. I had a big old calculator (IME 86) with a Nixie
display for a while, but didn't keep it when I move to the US (decided it
was too heavy to ship). Hopefully at some point I'll find something
similar this side of the Atlantic!

I did pull some Nixies from some old grain analysis equipment, which will
probably end up as a clock display one day (possibly one based on neon
tube logic)

Yeah, I've still got an old nixie calculator that I use in my workshop. It
is big and heavy enough that it doesn't get lost, and it works no matter how
much sawdust accumulates on it. Believe it or not, it was made by Sony. Some
of the display tubes are getting a little weak.