Greater than 48 volts battery = Death by Electrocution Risk

[4LivesPerGallon]

If more than 50 volts DC cross through your heart, i.e. from left hand to right hand, apparently you can die.

The "rule" is to use only one hand when working on batteries, so the current cannot cross through your heart, stopping it.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=how...&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=zV6uVYHyKovz-AGnp5GQDg

Electrical Safety: The Fatal Current
https://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~p616/safety/fatal_current.html
It's The Current That Kills. Offhand it would seem that a shock of 10,000 volts would be more deadly than 100 volts. But this is not so! Individuals have been electrocuted by appliances using ordinary house currents of 110 volts and by electrical apparatus in industry using as little as 42 volts direct current.

 

[Punx0r]

Neg.

Voltages in the range of 40-60VDC are considered to be present a negligible risk of electrocution under normal circumstances. Conducting 61VDC does not equal insta-kill.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extra-low_voltage

 

[bigmoose]

The article you quoted has the right stuff in it... it is the current that kills. The contact resistance where the current goes into and leaves your body matters tremendously. Dry skin resistance is quite different than warm, salt soaked sweaty skin. I have laid my arm across the terminals of a 12 volt car battery and felt it and watched my wrist muscles contract. I also got crosswise with a 40 KeV ion source at a nuclear linear accelerator and watched a one inch spark jump to my right index finger and blow me off a platform and into a rack of gas bottles some 40 years ago...

Better to be smart than "lucky!"

 

[liveforphysics]

I've taken 480vac, 220vac, 232vdc, and hundreds of times taken 116vdc to the extent I'm actually comfortable with sustained 116vdc from arm to arm across the chest at this point, I can still function normally at that voltage across my body.

I an only even feel 48v if I lick it or actually prick my skin with it, and even then it's a pretty pathetic tickle.

Yes, I've heard horror stories of people who died from a 9v battery, keep in mind people can also die just from being scared to death of a non-dangerous experience, so with adequate fear of death from being shocked it seems likely any mild tickle could kill someone looking for it.

 

[jonescg]

I've taken 480vac, 220vac, 232vdc, and hundreds of times taken 116vdc to the extent I'm actually comfortable with sustained 116vdc from arm to arm across the chest at this point, I can still function normally at that voltage across my body.

I have this image of Luke
[youtube]XfdJGrGfA_Y[/youtube]

Seriously man, you should be more careful.

 

[dnmun]

240V AC burns a lot. no fun. 90V DC burns a lot too.

my fav story. one of my technicians opened the cabinet of a big rf generator we used to make a plasma for the passivating nitride layer that seals the chip as the top layer.

anyway, he was the oldest so he had some sense and made it a point to short the high voltage caps with a screwdriver to verify it was dead. it blew the end off of the screwdriver and the bang was audible throughout the clean room and spooked all the operators. scared the living hell out of him. but likely saved his life.