news from austrlia

[kmorse]

 .... Man's static jacket sparks alert

An Australian man built up so much static electricity in his clothes as he walked that he burned carpets, melted plastic and sparked a mass evacuation.
Frank Clewer, of the western Victorian city of Warrnambool, was wearing a synthetic nylon jacket and a woollen shirt when he went for a job interview.
As he walked into the building, the carpet ignited from the 40,000 volts of static electricity that had built up.
"It sounded almost like a firecracker or something like that," he said.
"Within about five minutes, the carpet started to erupt," he told Australian radio.

Considerable current

Perplexed firemen evacuated the building and cut its electricity supply, thinking the burns could have been caused by a power surge.
"There were several scorch marks in the carpet, and we could hear a cracking noise - a bit like a whip - both inside and outside the building," said fire official Henry Barton.
Mr Clewer said that after leaving the building, he scorched a piece of plastic in his car.
His clothes were measured by firemen as carrying a current of 40,000 volts, the Reuters news agency quoted Mr Barton as saying.
The fire official added that the charge was close to being high enough to cause the items to spontaneously combust.
"I've been firefighting for over 35 years and I've never come across anything like this," he said.

[Higgins III]

Surly that can't be possible. If that were possible the direct contact between his clothing and his skin would have killed him because 40,000 volts isn't exactly the same sort of shock you'd get off of a friend who plays with ballons.

i've been shocked with 240 volts before and i was shaking for hours. I didn't even get direct contact. It jumped to my finger and up my arm. With direct contact between his cloths and his skin he would have died, even if he was wearing rubber trainers, the electrical current would have easily jumped the 2 centermeter gap to the floor.

thank god someone has the mind to work these things out

[Appelmoes??]

I got shocked with 230 V through a screwdriver and only got a weird tingeling. I'm not exactly a genius with electrics, but aren't the amps the thing that causes trouble when electrocuted?

This sounds like something for mythbusters btw

[Higgins III]

Yeah get the myth busters in here

get them to sort it out 

[kmorse]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200509/s1461751.htm

[keyboardistmatt]

I'm not exactly a genius with electrics, but aren't the amps the thing that causes trouble when electrocuted?

Correct. :)  Hence the bloke in the news report wasn't killed: because there is next to no Amp rating in static electricity.  That's not to say that static doesn't hurt, though!

[Higgins III]

Wow. I feel a right prat now.  I quess i should shut up if i don't know all the facts.

[Moonloop]

I quess i should shut up if i don't know all the facts.

Why. None of our senior management do, for example 

[kmorse]

"Sir, I have been through it from Alpha to Omaha, and I tell you that the less a man knows the bigger noise he makes and the higher the salary he commands."

Samuel Clemens, aka "Mark Twain"

[Higgins III]

Im going to have the IQ of a digger bucket more often

[Moonloop]

Im going to have the IQ of a digger bucket more often

That's one to me in 'spot the prog reference' 

[Higgins III]

  You can't help it can you

[keyboardistmatt]

That's one to me in 'spot the prog reference' 

Well done Loopy!  I'll put it on the wall.