French Torture Battery? (Photo/Capture)

MSNBC ^ | 03/28/03 | Self

[RnMomof7]

May they meet Allah quickly

[kimmie7]

ping

[The_Sword_of_Groo]

With todays batteries sustaining 400-1000 Cold Cranking Amps, I think that would be pretty irritating

True. And the thing we all need to remember is that it doesn't have to be agonizingly painful to constitute torture. Familiar with the fabled "Chinese Water Torture"? Repetetive drops of water on the head. Individually not painful. Collectively, enough to make you go insane. Lack of sleep, waiting on that next drop...when will it fall? water running in your eyes. Even better if its salt water.

[Puppage]

a 12-volt car battery isn't very useful as a torture device

Why don't ya hook up your scroat to the family car battery & come back & tell us that it isn't a very useful tool of persuasion, hmm?

[fatrat]

it has been almost 30 years since i examined a Navy field hospital's mount out gear but the last time i looked there were several pieces of equipment in there that required 12 volts to operate. for instance, a 12 volt jeep headlight was a standard item. it would be used as an operating light where 110v electricity was not available.

[meyer]

Why don't ya hook up your scroat to the family car battery & come back & tell us that it isn't a very useful tool of persuasion, hmm?

Ohm's law - learn it!

[OperationFreedom]

wrong

[myself6]

Its not the voltage that kills ya, its the current. Car batteries have a hell of alot of "cranking" AMPS. Try hooking jumper cables to your battery then touching the other side together. You can feel the current and see the pretty sparks.

[myself6]

Forgot to mention I was an Electronics Technician 1st Class (E6) in the Navy.

Combat ET's Rock.

Operations ET's are sissy's. :)

[meyer]

Its not the voltage that kills ya, its the current. Car batteries have a hell of alot of "cranking" AMPS. Try hooking jumper cables to your battery then touching the other side together. You can feel the current and see the pretty sparks.

Current flow is a function of voltage and resistance, as per ohm's law. The human body's resistance, even under worst case conditions, is almost always high enough that you won't even feel a 12-volt battery. You can't get 400 amps to flow through a 10,000 ohm resistor with 12 volts.

You're talking about whole different scenario when you talk about shorting the battery. You're unleashing the battery's stored energy in a short-term burst. I have a melted wrench from just such a thing - tightening the positive cable end while touching the car's body produced a pretty big spark and put quite a nick on both the wrench and the radiator core support structure. Though it did startle me a bit, I would hardly qualify it as torture. This is why, on a negative ground system as found in nearly every car, you should disconnect the negative first and re-connect it last.

[myself6]

Voltage and current are inversly proportional, for example, as the voltage goes up the current goes down.

A 12 volt potential is not enough to cause a great current flow through a 10kohm resistor but clean human skin is not a 10Kohm resister, more like 500 ohm. Add water and the surface resistance goes down further.

I = 12V/500 = 0.024A > 0.01A = pain

Enough to cause pain and discomfort to sensitive areas but not death. But then again thats the point of torture isnt it.

[meyer]

Voltage and current are inversly proportional, for example, as the voltage goes up the current goes down.

Of course, electricity 101. A 12 volt potential is not enough to cause a great current flow through a 10kohm resistor but clean human skin is not a 10Kohm resister, more like 500 ohm. Add water and the surface resistance goes down further.

Ummm, 500 ohms? If that were so, I've had 1/2 amp flow through me. That may be just a little bit fatal! Actually, books I've read place resistance between 10,000 ohms for dry skin and 1000 for worst-case wet, salty skin. I = 12V/500 = 0.024A > 0.01A = pain

Given that a 9 volt battery is barely preceptable when touched to the tongue, I wouldn't think that there'd be such a huge jump in sensitivity for a 33% increase in voltage.

[myself6]

Experimentation is the only course of action now.

Go place your tounge across the terminals of a car battery. Tell me what you find out.

[meyer]

Go place your tounge across the terminals of a car battery. Tell me what you find out.

If I could do that... Well, actually, ewwwww comes to mind. Mine are coated with thick grease to prevent corrosion. Probably won't taste very good.

[myself6]

:)

I was thinking jumper cables.

I am looking forward to doing the peer review of your experiment. Better yet, if you have a liberal neighbor have him be your guinea pig.

[Puppage]

Ohm's law - learn it!

You're car battery....touch it