And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Short to ground at low voltages do not produce violent explosions. Ever. You can get a bright arc and in a confined space full of gas you might get an explosion, but if this type of reaction was possible there would be a lot more dead people as a result.
Wrong. Even 12 volts can blow up pretty spectacularly. I've seen car batteries do it. This is household current (in the US, 110 volts) and if not fused properly, can indeed cause a devastating explosion where the metal involved goes from a solid state of matter to gaseous in an instant.
A car battery can explode in a fireball. The electrolyte makes hydrogen. I was grinding on my motorcycle's header to get a muffler to fit right. Sparks got too close to the vent tube hanging under the bike. It ignited and the battery case split and slung a few bits and pieces around in the battery carrier and blew most of the "water" out. Sounded like a 22 rifle at around20 yards.
Many years ago I was in a new building being finished in Boston, the shell was complete and the heating system was coming online. I was watching as an electrician was removing the huge electric space heaters that had moderated the temperature through the winter. As my friend explained it later, one mother big cable was run up the center of the building, wired to (forty years ago so I may be wrong) 480v at a buncha amps. Each floor branched off to several of these heaters.
When the time came on that day to remove the space heaters, the electrician disconnected the feed in the basement. Since that was the source he began to go up the building floor by floor removing the wiring and the units.
Flashback about four months. On one floor the Chief Contractor had an office and a staff. So on that floor they ran a separate power line for 'temp' power for lights, computers and ... heat. Somehow that never got on the plans.
So at this point the electrician climbed up the ladder and put his 'dikes' on the electric cable and squeezed. I still had a spot in the vision hours later when I headed home. Amazingly that electrician also headed home, days later. After the flash I blinked and saw the guy lying on the floor some twenty feet from his point of departure. His ladder was some twenty feet in the opposite direction. His cutters were missing the first two inches of steel. His face was pocked with little drops of molten metal. He lay there, conscious but repeating "Oh F**K, Oh F**K".
arc flash is just as hot as the surface of the sun. for training purposes, I have a surveillance video of an electrician getting killed changing a racked fuse, hot, because he'd done it several times before with no issues...nothing left of him but a cooked smear on the wall from the heat and the blast front...oh,f*ckered indeed... when you consider that as little as 50vac current can cross the body's skin boundary and stop your life in your tracks, the three people in the toaster video are probably buying numbers ticket like crazy today if they are still alive because it looked to be somewhat higher voltage than 120vac.
Guy I used to know pretty well, a fine and very competent industrial electrician of many years' experience, screwed up just the once, got ahold of 480 3-phase, or rather it got ahold of him, and didn't go home that evening. All it takes is that once. That kinda power is no joke.
a spark plug is 50,000 volts or more, but doesnt kill you because theres virtually no amps pushing it. and car batteries exploding have nothing to do with the voltage or electricity at all, its the hydrogen exploding, a la Hindenberg I dont think any toaster would blow apart like that, but maybe its possible.
Something fishy about that most definitely…
ReplyDeleteMight be Europe. Everything is 240V three phase there. Those shorts are pretty impressive.
ReplyDeleteWrong
DeleteMight be Europe. Everything is 240V three phase there. Those shorts to ground are pretty impressive.
ReplyDeleteThe UK is 415V 3 phase, 230V single phase.
ReplyDeleteMy toaster can barely pop a slice of toast up but can throw my daddy across the room!
ReplyDeleteI've known people that stupid. Sadly, some of them have gone on to have offspring.
ReplyDeleteWife warns me not to stick a knife in toaster
ReplyDeleteBut it's not on I say
Short to ground at low voltages do not produce violent explosions. Ever. You can get a bright arc and in a confined space full of gas you might get an explosion, but if this type of reaction was possible there would be a lot more dead people as a result.
ReplyDeleteWrong. Even 12 volts can blow up pretty spectacularly. I've seen car batteries do it. This is household current (in the US, 110 volts) and if not fused properly, can indeed cause a devastating explosion where the metal involved goes from a solid state of matter to gaseous in an instant.
DeleteA car battery can explode in a fireball. The electrolyte makes hydrogen.
DeleteI was grinding on my motorcycle's header to get a muffler to fit right. Sparks got too close to the vent tube hanging under the bike. It ignited and the battery case split and slung a few bits and pieces around in the battery carrier and blew most of the "water" out. Sounded like a 22 rifle at around20 yards.
Many years ago I was in a new building being finished in Boston, the shell was complete and the heating system was coming online.
ReplyDeleteI was watching as an electrician was removing the huge electric space heaters that had moderated the temperature through the winter. As my friend explained it later, one mother big cable was run up the center of the building, wired to (forty years ago so I may be wrong) 480v at a buncha amps. Each floor branched off to several of these heaters.
When the time came on that day to remove the space heaters, the electrician disconnected the feed in the basement. Since that was the source he began to go up the building floor by floor removing the wiring and the units.
Flashback about four months. On one floor the Chief Contractor had an office and a staff. So on that floor they ran a separate power line for 'temp' power for lights, computers and ... heat. Somehow that never got on the plans.
So at this point the electrician climbed up the ladder and put his 'dikes' on the electric cable and squeezed. I still had a spot in the vision hours later when I headed home. Amazingly that electrician also headed home, days later. After the flash I blinked and saw the guy lying on the floor some twenty feet from his point of departure. His ladder was some twenty feet in the opposite direction.
His cutters were missing the first two inches of steel. His face was pocked with little drops of molten metal. He lay there, conscious but repeating "Oh F**K, Oh F**K".
The joke always after someone cut live wires, was if they were going to weld, then they better get a welding helmet.
Deletearc flash is just as hot as the surface of the sun. for training purposes, I have a surveillance video of an electrician getting killed changing a racked fuse, hot, because he'd done it several times before with no issues...nothing left of him but a cooked smear on the wall from the heat and the blast front...oh,f*ckered indeed... when you consider that as little as 50vac current can cross the body's skin boundary and stop your life in your tracks, the three people in the toaster video are probably buying numbers ticket like crazy today if they are still alive because it looked to be somewhat higher voltage than 120vac.
DeleteGuy I used to know pretty well, a fine and very competent industrial electrician of many years' experience, screwed up just the once, got ahold of 480 3-phase, or rather it got ahold of him, and didn't go home that evening. All it takes is that once. That kinda power is no joke.
DeleteLot of 'electricians' here...and a few electricians. You can tell who's gotten paid as one though.
ReplyDeleteits the amps that hurts you , not the volts.
ReplyDeletea spark plug is 50,000 volts or more, but doesnt kill you because theres virtually no amps pushing it.
and car batteries exploding have nothing to do with the voltage or electricity at all, its the hydrogen exploding, a la Hindenberg
I dont think any toaster would blow apart like that, but maybe its possible.