Electrical Query - Burns / Electrocution

SexyGreyFox said:
You can also shove a knife into a toaster without anything happening.

This is how we tested elements on the factory, put your fingers on the element, turn on the switch and within seconds you should be removing your fingers unless there's something wrong with you.
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this made me chuckle
 
Orion21 said:
If you touch the metal part of a soldering iron would you just get burned or would you also get electrocuted?

I'm fairly sure you just get burned, but why is this the case?

Surely if it is metal with electricity flowing through to heat it you would be electrocuted too?

Wondering a similar thing about clothes irons too.

To clarify it is how they are designed to stop them becoming live to the touch that I curious about (i.e. what stops them essentially being a live wire)?
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Just burned. The smell of searing flesh is not something you forget easily.

"Whats that smell... ah it's me!"
 
Orion21 said:
If you touch the metal part of a soldering iron would you just get burned or would you also get electrocuted?

I'm fairly sure you just get burned, but why is this the case?

Surely if it is metal with electricity flowing through to heat it you would be electrocuted too?

Wondering a similar thing about clothes irons too.

To clarify it is how they are designed to stop them becoming live to the touch that I curious about (i.e. what stops them essentially being a live wire)?
Click to expand...

P7vbg2j.gif


Adult required in Aisle 9. Internet spillage, repeat: internet spillage.
 
Orion21 said:
If you touch the metal part of a soldering iron would you just get burned or would you also get electrocuted?

I'm fairly sure you just get burned, but why is this the case?

Surely if it is metal with electricity flowing through to heat it you would be electrocuted too?

Wondering a similar thing about clothes irons too.

To clarify it is how they are designed to stop them becoming live to the touch that I curious about (i.e. what stops them essentially being a live wire)?
Click to expand...


But.... What if it was a butane Soldering Iron......? :cool:
 
Isn't the heat generated due to the resistance between positive and negative? In which case we would only get electrocuted if the resistance from us to earth was less than that via the heating element?

The only electronics I've done was in physics and that was quite a while ago, there's a reason I stick to software.
 
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Trucamo said:
Isn't the heat generated due to the resistance between positive and negative? In which case we would only get electrocuted if the resistance from us to earth was less than that via the heating element?

The only electronics I've done was in physics and that was quite a while ago, there's a reason I stick to software.
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The heating element is/should always be insulated and separate from the actual tip or outer shell.
Unless you're using a 1950's household appliance (with such features as the self ejecting power cord when the kettle is boiled), or something cheap made in China* at any time up until about the year 2050 when it's pot luck what safety features will have been left out to save a penny per thousand, or simply because no one thought to check they were being assembled correctly.



*Bigclivedotocom's youtube channel is full of examples of these.
 
Nobody beats a former member (maybe still here) called Treefrog who decided to go into a Sub Station in Trentham and his body turned all the electricity off.
I still have his pictures and they are not nice viewing.
 
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