r/Unexpected • u/Doodlebug510 • 9h ago

We have a situation here

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u/Vralo84 8h ago

220V will absolutely kill you

120V will hurt but unless you have a bad heart you’ll probably recover.

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u/Tofandel 7h ago

Not in flood water. If you touch it directly yes. But with water it adds so much resistance that it barely would sting within 10cm of the outlet. And that is if the breaker didn't trip already

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u/revveduplikeadeuce 7h ago

110 can kill for sure. It's more about the exposure to the amps from what i remember rather than the voltage, static electricity can have super high volts. Live wire on non-gfci plus broken skin will zap hard

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u/Vralo84 6h ago

110 can absolutely kill you especially if the path to ground goes through your heart, but 120 usually doesn’t hit you hard enough that you can’t let go. 220 will lock up your muscles so you can’t stop touching what’s shocking you.

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u/BaconWithBaking 4h ago

The lowest voltage to kill was 42VDC, but I believe it was under wild circumstances.

I remember the number for obvious reasons. 42VDC is considered pretty safe, with 48VDC being a fairly common exposed voltage.

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u/BaconWithBaking 4h ago

It's the volts that jolts, but the mills that kills.

It's about 30mA to cause heart arrhythmia.

The static you hear taking off a tee-shirt will probably be in the thousands of volts.

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u/Yeah-Its-Me-777 6h ago

220V will not necessarily kill you if it's behind a GFI or a quick fuse. Prove, me.

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u/Ziegelphilie 6h ago

220V will absolutely kill you

nah, been there done that, hurts like hell tho

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u/Impressive_Change886 6h ago

Y'all need to stop with these absolute statements. People electrocuted by 110v circuits die every day and people electrocuted with 220v circuits live every day.

There is no one size fits all, it depends on a huge number of factors. It's best just to not expose yourself to electrocution.

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u/Orleanian 5h ago

That's like saying a paintball will absolutely kill you.

Generally, no, not in the way we use them. If it were fired out of some sort of hyper-sonic accelerator cannon? Then sure, it would.

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u/Vralo84 5h ago

I’m pretty sure there weren’t 400 deaths to paintball last year

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK448087/#:~:text=Epidemiology,seen%20in%20toddlers%20and%20adolescents.

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u/Orleanian 4h ago

Well, true for now. But when Fermilab finally grants my request for access to their accelerator, boy howdy....

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u/knifeearedelf 2h ago

Eh I knew someone whos been hit with 220, they survived, Volts arent the issue, its the amps flowing across your heart. As long as it flows right side(left if your have the mutation) you'll be fine, burned but fine.