Hacker News Reader

Voltage does matter. If you have thick skin or touch cable through something (like layer of paint) it might be enough to save you if the voltage is 100V but not if it's 240V.

View on HN

ElectroBoom has a great video on how the interplay between current and voltage works with lethality in the human body. As he shows, even 150A in your mouth can be safe:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDf2nhfxVzg

To be totally clear here: DO NOT ATTEMPT AT HOME.

Similarly, lowest voltage ever to kill someone was 48V.

I don’t disagree, but my assumption is the difference between 100V and 240V is pretty minor under most scenarios.

This is entirely "stuff I absorbed growing up", but I was very firmly given the impression that I shouldn't mess with the 240V outlets, because the 120V outlets might kill me but the 240V outlets will kill me (of course, in the US, the 120V outlets are 15+/-5A, and the 240V outlets are 30A).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com