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Grounding by touching a ground lead

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  1. Dec 18, 2014 #1

    rasen58

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    Is it possible to sufficiently ground yourself just by touching the negative lead of a wire coming from a power supply once?
     
    rasen58, Dec 18, 2014
  2. jcsd
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  3. Dec 18, 2014 #2

    jerromyjon

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    No you need to stay connected to be grounded, and it needs to be to Earth ground.
     
    jerromyjon, Dec 18, 2014
  4. Dec 18, 2014 #3

    berkeman

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    Staff: Mentor

    If you are wearing a wool sweater on a dry day, you will charge back up within a few seconds of moving around after touching the ground lead. If you're not doing anything that charges you back up, it will take a while for any charge to build up on you again.

    BTW, it's good practice to ground yourself though a large value resistor like 1 MegOhm. This reduces the possibility that you can get shocked badly if you happen to be connected to some other voltage. ESD control wriststraps, for example, contain such a current-limiting resistor.
     
    berkeman, Dec 18, 2014
  5. Dec 18, 2014 #4

    davenn

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    Plus, the negative lead from the PSU may not be grounded ( ie. its " floating")
     
    davenn, Dec 18, 2014
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