Hi all,
I came across something today and I hope the moderators will allow a bit of latitude here and let me get some feedback from the genius-level collective think tank of this illustrious list. ;-) It is my understanding that a typical stun gun uses a small solid state pulsed circuit to produce the high voltage discharges - similar to an OLTC circuit (or is it more akin to a Marx bank?). One thing that I can't help but notice though is how the voltage claims of commercial stun gun manufacturers has reached ludicrous levels and was wondering if anyone else has noticed this trend? 50 kV, 100 kV, 200 kV, 500 kV, 1 MV, 5MV, and now - 49 MV? Just how much voltage does it take to "stun" someone, anyway? :-D
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Silver-Scorpion-X-High-Voltage-Stun-Gun-LED-Light-Rechargeable-USB-Cable-/121525955612?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c4b82ec1c
I'm thinking "49 million volts" should be in the same range as the potentials seen with real lightning :-) I do realize that the nature of the voltage source as well as radius of curvature of the electrodes, along with atmospheric conditions can cause some widely varying spark discharge lengths vs. a given potential, but the stun gun manufacturer voltage claims have gotten to the point that they insult the intelligence! Obviously, there is little or no verification or oversight to the outrageous voltage claims of these devices. Thoughts?
David
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