Re: nst shock

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Terry Fritz" <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>

Hi Frank,

>At 12:10 AM 7/10/2001 -0400, you wrote: 
>
>
>            Hi my name is frank im new to coiling and i was working on my 
>power supply unit and i accidently grabbed hold of the end of the hv out line 
>which is 10,000 volt at 20 milla amps and i barly flinched. i barley feel 120 
>shocks any more and im small i only way 135 punds (and im only 16)  I don't 
>understand how a full grown man can get nocked accross the room bye a shock 
>like this when it barley makes me flinch. can anyone offer any sugestions?

In order to get "shocked" the current has to have a source and a ground to
complete the circuit and flow serious current.  Birds can easily sit on
220kV power lines since their whole bodies are charged to 220kV with very
tiny currents.  Even though the 220kV is there, there is no ground to
complete the current path and allow say 1,000,000 amps to vaporize them.

This is why some people can touch 120 VAC and not know it and others get
killed.  It depends on the current.  If there is a lot of skin resistance
or the ground has a high resistance path, then the current is very low.  If
you are standing in water or in the bath tub your dead...

In your case, the transformer mush have just charged you up to 10kV but it
had no where to go and the current was very low.  If you were touching
something grounded at the same time, you would be writing "wow!, I just got
the $(&^%^$ shocked out of me!"  

High voltage gets nasty since skin resistance and other simple insulation
is not very effective.  Also the currents can get very high.  If you touch
120VAC and you have 5000 ohms of resistance to ground, the current is 24mA.
 But if you touch 10000 volts, the current is 2 amps.  If one is really
having a bad day. you can get across two phases where the source resistance
is super low and blow yourself up.  Check out the fella on PCP at:

http://hot-streamer-dot-com/TeslaCoils/Misc/sparky_2.doc

He touched around the same voltage you did but the current was virtually
unlimited.  It makes a big difference!!  The shower of embers in the last
picture is burning body fat and clothing.  NSTs are fairly forgiving in
that they are designed to try and not kill you, but a number of people have
been killed by them if they really get across them with a good low
resistance path...  Of course, lots of people get killed by 120VAC all the
time.  Usually involves water or really grabbing something hard...

Cheers,

	Terry