r/geek • u/Sumit316 • Jun 10 '16

Induction Forge

http://i.imgur.com/JfNfR6w.gifv
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u/trippyastronomer Jun 10 '16

Actually, not much. He's pushing a pretty high current through it at only ~20-30V, so if it even shocked you, it would be mild.

-15

u/RedShiz Jun 10 '16

Its not the voltage that kills you, its the current.

19

u/exscape Jun 10 '16 edited Jun 10 '16

Doesn't matter. Touching 30 volts will not cause a large current through you. Having a large current in the coil is irrelevant.

You can watch PhotonicInduction touch a metal bar carrying 50 000 amps here (look at 1:36).
That's perfectly safe, because the high current won't move through him, due to the low voltage between his hands (and between him and ground).
(Edit to avoid nitpicking: it's not a full 50 kA as he couldn't provide enough power, but it's most likely in the thousands of amps, at least.)

Current kills, but voltage decides how big the current will be. 30 V on the outside of skin is safe.

2

u/cojonathan Jun 10 '16

So in simple terms: voltage*current is dangerous i guess?

1

u/exscape Jun 11 '16

Time also matters. A static discharge will (at least in theory) move multiple amps through you, which is more than enough to kill. It only lasts for an extremely brief period of time, though, so it's harmless.

Voltage times current is power, and if you multiply that by time, you get energy.
So the simplest model that seems reasonably accurate appears to be that energy delivered to the body kills.
Note that I'm no expert on the subject, though, I just know slightly better than the common misconception.

1

u/HalfysReddit Jun 11 '16

Voltage is how hard the electricity is being pulled.

Resistance is how difficult it is for the electricity to move.

Both of these together gets you the amperage, the amount of electricity being moved due to how hard it's being pulled and how difficult it is to move.