Unfortunately you are going to need a little bit more than fuzzy swaeater logic to back that up.
MSEE = a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering.
I would consider that much more than an appropriate education to debunk this story.
A similar effect is often seen in the winter in northern climes. People with fuzzy sweaters and woolen clothing wearing nylon parkas. They shock the heck out of themselves getting in and out of their cars with the nylon weave cushion covers.
Ok, yes, people do in fact create enough of a static charge to shock themselves.... not to start electrical fires. Unless his office was a QA team of gasoline sniffers (you know, to make sure it smells right), there is no way that a static charge built up around a human could ever ignite carpet, or melt plastic.
not to beat a dead cow, but:
"We tested his clothes with a static electricity field meter and measured a current of 40,000 volts, which is one step shy of spontaneous combustion, where his clothes would have self-ignited," Barton said.
Wow! 40,000 volts of current, eh?! Publish that and give yourself a Nobel Peace Prize for research in the electrical theory field! One of two basic mistakes here still proves the story writer an assinine liar. First, he could have accidently written volts instead of amps. 40,000 amps.... heheheh I don't think so (he wouldn't have gotten to his car to melt the plastic... that discharge at the carpet would've fried him to dust). Second, he could have accidentally said current instead of voltage. And you are still going to have a very very difficult time convincing me that a fire department had the proper device to measure such a static field (and at what two test points did they take a measurement at?).
The story is just one more in a long series of stories written by losers who wish they had something important to write.
First of all... I just looked out my backdoor, and of the few square miles I can see, only about an eight of it is being used... for anything at all. Please! Send the millions of people looking for a place to lay their head without bumping elbows with their neighbors here! Quick! It's our world's only hope!
**Of course access to contraception and (gasp!) abortion is important as well.
Second... Great Idea! Cancel my first point! Let's just murder everyone who doesn't fit! I'm envisioning our world's new motto: First come first serve, Baby (no pun intended)!
Slashdot Mirror
MSEE = a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering.
I would consider that much more than an appropriate education to debunk this story.
Ok, yes, people do in fact create enough of a static charge to shock themselves.... not to start electrical fires. Unless his office was a QA team of gasoline sniffers (you know, to make sure it smells right), there is no way that a static charge built up around a human could ever ignite carpet, or melt plastic.
not to beat a dead cow, but:
Wow! 40,000 volts of current, eh?! Publish that and give yourself a Nobel Peace Prize for research in the electrical theory field! One of two basic mistakes here still proves the story writer an assinine liar. First, he could have accidently written volts instead of amps. 40,000 amps.... heheheh I don't think so (he wouldn't have gotten to his car to melt the plastic... that discharge at the carpet would've fried him to dust). Second, he could have accidentally said current instead of voltage. And you are still going to have a very very difficult time convincing me that a fire department had the proper device to measure such a static field (and at what two test points did they take a measurement at?).
The story is just one more in a long series of stories written by losers who wish they had something important to write.
First of all... I just looked out my backdoor, and of the few square miles I can see, only about an eight of it is being used... for anything at all. Please! Send the millions of people looking for a place to lay their head without bumping elbows with their neighbors here! Quick! It's our world's only hope! **Of course access to contraception and (gasp!) abortion is important as well. Second... Great Idea! Cancel my first point! Let's just murder everyone who doesn't fit! I'm envisioning our world's new motto: First come first serve, Baby (no pun intended)!