Previous in Forum: Shear Modulus and Max Shear Stress   Next in Forum: Can butene-1 be used as domestic fuel?
Close
Close
Close
3 comments
Rate Comments: Nested
Guru
United States - Member - New Member Technical Fields - Technical Writing - New Member Popular Science - Weaponology - Organizer Hobbies - Target Shooting - New Member Engineering Fields - Nuclear Engineering - New Member

Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 2969
Good Answers: 33

Static Electricity in Man's Jacket Leads to Burns

09/16/2005 8:15 AM

The Austrialian Broadcasting Corporation reports that a man built up at least 30,000 volts of static electricity in his jacket by simply walking around the city of Warrnambool. Frank Clewer left burns in the carpet of a local business and even scorched a piece of plastic in his car. Fire officials confiscated Clewer's jacket, claiming that it continued to give off voltage.

Register to Reply
Interested in this topic? By joining CR4 you can "subscribe" to
this discussion and receive notification when new comments are added.
Friend of CR4

Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 1776
Good Answers: 35
#1

Shocking

09/16/2005 8:28 AM

Sorry about the pun. How is it possible that jacket can generate that much static electricity?

__________________
Off to take on other challenges. Good luck everybody! See you around the Interwebs.
Register to Reply
The Feature Creep

Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Boston, MA
Posts: 990
#2
In reply to #1

Re:Shocking

09/16/2005 8:44 AM

If they have an elastic polymer it might act as a giant capacitor. Still that's a lot of voltage to be in piece of clothing.

__________________
"The future is here. It's just not widely distributed yet." -William Gibson
Register to Reply
Active Contributor

Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 16
#3
In reply to #2

Re:Shocking

09/21/2005 7:04 AM

The issue is not the voltage produced, but the current.

It is a fairly simple task to product static electricity potentials in the thousands of volts, but it is an entirly different matter to store enough electrons to generate the ohmic heating needed to scorch/burn things.

Sounds like the stuff of urban legend to me!

__________________
If life wasn't so difficult it would be easy.
Register to Reply
Register to Reply 3 comments
Copy to Clipboard

Users who posted comments:

BRodda (1); Chris Leonard (1); Yankee Bruce (1)

Previous in Forum: Shear Modulus and Max Shear Stress   Next in Forum: Can butene-1 be used as domestic fuel?

Advertisement