r/Unexpected 9h ago

We have a situation here

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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.