And what do you think would happen if you grasped both terminals of a 12V car battery with your bare hands?
Firemen also test for hot surfaces with the back of their hand for the very same reason. It is more sensitive than the palm and if you do involuntary grip some thing then it will be fresh air and not a cable or door handle.
A little current would flow through your body, probablly not enough to be noticed.And what do you think would happen if you grasped both terminals of a 12V car battery with your bare hands?
Next minute, my bro's mate was thrown across where they were working.
Turns out, some numpty went and broke into the box (bolt cutters on the padlock) and turned the power back on....................
I unscrewed a metal light fitting so I could paint the ceiling rose without getting paint on the light fitting. Afterwards I screwed the the light fitting back on whilst stood on metal steps holding the light in one hand whilst screwing with the other hand. As I put the last turn of the screw I must have trapped the live and cut through the insulation causing the whole light fitting to go live. I couldn't let go however hard I tried and after about 30 seconds took the decision to jump from the steps still holding the lighting firmly. In doing so I ripped the whole lighting from the ceiling braking the wire and cutting the electricity supply. Only at that point could i release my grip. Not injured from the fall arm shook for a while. Good job I was up a ladder and could take advantage of gravity
The rest of my shocks were down to shared neutrals on lighting circuits back in my domestic days.
i recently found out, that if you manage to unfortunately end up gripping a live cable it is absolutely impossible to let go because the electricity causes your upper arm muscles to tighten and as they are much stronger than your hand muscles the only solution - apart from turning off the power - is to break every finger or chop your hand off.
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