Statically Charged Man Ignites Office

Call Me Black Cloud writes "And you think your coworker with BO is annoying? In this story carried by Reuters, a man wearing a nylon jacket over a wool shirt built up such a static charge that he left a trail of scorched carpet and melted plastic in his wake. After he melted plastic in his car he sought help from firefighters called to the scene, who measured his static field at 40,000 volts." Obviously, despite the fact that this is carried by Reuters, you should take some of the 'facts' presented here with some NaCl.

Comments

I smell a

[fandog]

future Mythbusters in the works...

Re:zaaaaap

[dattaway]

40,000 would be painful, but not something you would remember THAT long.

You won't feel the voltage, but the current. The voltage is what makes it happen. You won't get an amp of current flowing through your skin at 10 volts, but you will if 10,000 volts is sustained. Once the voltage is applied, current will have to wait a fraction of a second to overcome inductance, then it would have an open highway. Once the path of current has been established, its likely the source of energy has been dishcarged and dropping the voltage down to an insignificant amount. Its the milliamps that will kill or start a fire.

Unless of course you are discharging an infinite energy source such as a 14,440 volt power main off the neighborhood telephone pole, which the constant voltage source will supply the steady current needed to form conductive carbon trails that will burn themselves through the body, superheat tissues, and cause limbs and organs to explode like sticks of dynamite.