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RE: That's the, aptly named, death cap. Nt

> We are not talking about a dead short here. We are taking about the voltage drop across the human body.

Okay! However, the human body has resistance so I was modeling the human body as a dead short with zero resistance for maximum current from 120-volt source. If your body has 50k-ohms resistance, the current through your body would be 1.65-mA with a voltage drop of 82.3-volts. If your body has 500k-ohms resistance, the current would 0.239-mA with a voltage drop of 28.6-volts.

> Would you be willing to place your body in series with an old 1940s-1960s .05mfd paper condenser connected to a 120Vac source to prove your theory?

Well, I don't have one of those old capacitors and I can't imagine why anyone would use one in that application. However, I just tried touching a modern 0.05-uF capacitor connected to my line voltage and I definitely could feel the shock. I used two fingers on one hand rather than both hands because I didn't want the current going through my heart. My finger tips tingled. It felt kind of like touching a little 9-volt battery to my tongue. Have you ever tried that. I didn't want to hold on to it very long, but it didn't hurt me.

A serious situation could occur if the capacitor became shorted. Then it would provide a direct low resistance path for current as if it were a wire instead of a capacitor. However, as long as the capacitor remains in good shape, there should not be a problem.

Best regards,
John Elison



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