Man Killed by 9 volt battery


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(1999) A US Navy safety publication describes injuries incurred while doing don't's. One page described the fate of a sailor playing with a multimeter in an unauthorized manner. He was curious about the resistance level of the human body. He had a Simpson 260 multimeter, a small unit powered by a 9-volt battery. That may not seem powerful enough to be dangerous? but it can be deadly in the wrong hands.

The sailor took a probe in each hand to measure his bodily resistance from thumb to thumb. But the probes had sharp tips, and in his excitement he pressed his thumbs hard enough against the probes to break the skin. Once the salty conducting fluid known as blood was available, the current from the multimeter travelled right across the sailor's heart, disrupting the electrical regulation of his heartbeat. He died before he could record his Ohms.

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Yeah; it is a bit sad but yeah is pretty funny.

I know peeps who put the 9volt batterys onto there touques to see if they are still working or not; i some times wonder if that could kill them?

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Yeah; it is a bit sad but yeah is pretty funny.

I know peeps who put the 9volt batterys onto there touques to see if they are still working or not; i some times wonder if that could kill them?

It didn't kill me. :D

:unsure:

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used to be the old gag way way back in school ;) Ya know the old lick a battery...

Jim: 'Hey, Steve, come and try this!' *sticks battery on tounge*

BZZZZZZZZPPPTT **Thrashes about**

Steve: 'Sh*t Jim, you just had a stroke! .. do it again!'

Jim: 'Yeh, i was gonna!'

...

Lol seriously it was a lads thing went about loads in school never killed no one lol

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yeah, licking a battery (most likely) wont kill you because there is no current going across the heart....what killed this guy was that he did it in each hand. if he had held both in one hand, he wouldnt have died...of course, he wouldnt have gotten a proper reading, but still, he wouldnt have died.

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We're using multimeters all the time at the university. I'm glad I read this thread. Geez never knew it could lead to that.

if you're doing anything with electrickery at uni, i'd bloody hope you knew the dangers involved.

remember, it's the current not the voltage that kills

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yeah... i guess that could happen... but this one time i accidentally touched an exposed,metal part of my tv w/ one hand and grabbed the bottom of my cable box w/ the other... that hurt like a bitch... that would have been much more than 9v too.. but i didnt die... my thumbs hurt though.

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I'm undecided currently if that story's actually true. For once I'm not sure that 9V are enough to disrupt the heart, and on top of that, multimeters send only very small amounts of current while probing the resistance, not the full power of their battery.

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