Posted on 07/10/2017 11:11:01 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Ever notice that Mythbusters “proved”it was a myth by hooking up meters to register the amps and voltage, never by allowing themselves to be actually shocked.
I always remember the test where they poured salt water on the electric fence and “proved” you could not get shocked by peeing on such a fence. But they did not pee on the fence themselves.
After reading about this girl I wonder why I am still alive as I used to play a radio next to the tub while taking a bath, sixty years ago.
“But the crux: Why is it bad to plug a power strip into another power strip? I do that in my garage when I need a few extra feet of cord.”
If you are using it as an extension cord just for the length, that’s not a problem. If you have extra cords plugged into each one, with a total of 27 items essentially plugged into one outlet, you are probably trying to draw WAY more power than one outlet can give you.
A 15 Amp circuit can supply up to 1800 Watts (120V x 15 Amps) a 20 Amp circuit can supply up to 2400 Watts (120 Volts x 20 Amps). Remember, that includes all outlets on that breaker or fuse. Just add up all the Watts on everything on that circuit, everything should have the Watts printed on the bottom somewhere.
14 and wise beyond here years?
Uhhhh,, NO.
RIP
Recent construction houses don’t even place outlets near bathtubs.
Still not sure exactly how this could have happened. Sure,1 amp is enough to kill you,but I’d think you’d need more than 5v. to do any damage. Wondering if somehow the 110v. portion of the charger came in contact with the water...????
I just watched that episode a couple of days ago, and your friend is literally DEAD WRONG.
The current that flowed after the device dropped into the water would have killed anyone unfortunate enough to be sitting in the bathtub when the power actually hit the water.
Even with a GFCI, there is still a (very) small but real chance of enough current to cause problems.
They don’t call it POWER for nothing!
E=IXR. Secondly, a car battery has 80 cranking AMPS. But only 12 volts.
110 Volts in a tub of water will kill you. Secondly, I would LOVE to see that myth disproved.
Clearly the government needs to install webcams in our bathrooms so they can watch us and protect us from things like this.
I don't mean to make light of this girl's tragedy, just that some idiots get away with something like this, while an innocent dies due to a mistake.
The Classic. Someone pointed they were not U.S. rednecks as the plug connection is European.
This is the typical non-isolated AC/DC converter that by its nature, can pose a severe shock hazard. The largest parts are the 10K ohm, 5 watt resister and the .22 mF 250 V capacitor.
The image of the 10K ohm resister is greatly enlarged.
Hey, thanks for the response.
I merely use the 1st strip, plugged into the wall, as an extender, and the only thing plugged into it is the 2nd strip.
I live in an old house (1950). The outlets were not grounded back then, and somebody did a half hearted retrofit so that next to several old outlets are newer 3 prong outlets. It’s odd, as if the previous owner just ran out of money part way through.
I remodeled my bathroom and put in a new outlet. There was no place to ground it so I ran a wire through the wall to a pipe going down into the ground, It hasn’t sizzled yet! My friend advised me; He is an electrical engineer but he also smokes a lot of pot, so I’m sorta dubious..
My speculation is she picked it up with wet hand. May have gotten a jolt and then dropped the phone into the bath
And a battery is not connected to the house mains
Some forms of stupid can’t be fixed
Skin resistance soaking wet in a bathtub is not the same as dry skin. The piping to the tub may be metallic providing for a good ground connection to faucets and the drain.
The charger has a peak voltage of about 170 (120 x 1.414) within the wall wart, only needing an electrical fault to supply a sufficient leakage current to the phone charge connection.
Also, if the phone were charging, just touching it would give you a shock. It may not kill you, but customers would notice.
No cell chargers are made that way.
I would hope so . . .
“A feedback circuit measures the output voltage and sends a signal to the controller IC, which adjusts the switching frequency to obtain the desired voltage.”
No.
It controls the “on” time of the switching transistor. Longer on time means that more charge goes into the capacitors on the output side, thus higher voltage. Conversely, shorter on time means less energy and therefor lower voltage at the output. The frequency stays the same. Think Pulse Width Modulated circuit.
But none of this has a damn thing to do with the subject. It’s just a couple of techie guys swingin’ our dicks around.
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