Is Grounding Yourself with Outlet Safe?

[iScience]

will i be safe if i...

i stuck a conductor inside ground outlet. I touch it so that i am grounded (i don't trust the carpet floor to properly ground me) next i want to take my multimeter and read the voltage across me and the hot outlet. since voltmeters have high resistances, i should be safe right?

basically i want to measure the voltage between ground and hot which I've done many times... just that, this time, i want me to be part of the circuit.

so.. two questions..

will amount of current going through me be a safe amount?
&..
will the frequency going through me be safe for my heart?
since.. I've been told that even if there's not a lot of current, the frequency of household electricity is quite well tuned to mess up the human heart.

 

[jedishrfu]

yes household AC at 60Hz is a multiple of the human heart rate at 60 to 100 beats per minute so it could basically put your heart into fibrillation mode.

Why can't you just use the volt meter to measure and skip going through your body?

 

[Mordred]

i stuck a conductor inside ground outlet. I touch it so that i am grounded (i don't trust the carpet floor to properly ground me) next i want to take my multimeter and read the voltage across me and the hot outlet. since voltmeters have high resistances, i should be safe right?

basically i want to measure the voltage between ground and hot which I've done many times... just that, this time, i want me to be part of the circuit.

so.. two questions..

will amount of current going through me be a safe amount?
&..
will the frequency going through me be safe for my heart?
since.. I've been told that even if there's not a lot of current, the frequency of household electricity is quite well tuned to mess up the human heart.

You want to be part of the circuit, please stay away from anything electrical that is the LAST thing you want to do regardless of voltage or current.

 

[davenn]

Ohhh dear,
another Darwin Award in the making !

Mentors, please lock the thread and give the OP a strong health and saftey warning

Dave

 

[mfb]

You want to be part of the circuit, please stay away from anything electrical that is the LAST thing you want to do regardless of voltage or current.

It can also be the last thing you actually do in your life.

since voltmeters have high resistances, i should be safe right?

Don't trust voltmeters for safety.
Don't do that.

 

[iScience]

just so i don't get my account locked or something like that for this silly reason, don't worry... I am not going to do it if everyone is telling me it's dangerous. that's why I am checking first with people

 

[Mordred]

Thank goodness lol, first rule of working with anything electrical, regardless of how much voltage or current keep yourself isolated from the circuit. Never create a path for live current to flow from source through you to ground.

http://electrical.about.com/od/electricalsafety/a/amperagekills.htm

if you look at the chart I posted just now, then consider your post above at 15 amps on that 120 socket. which is 150 times stonger than the dangerous levels on that chart. You can easily see why we responded the way we did.

 

[berkeman]

Thread is closed.

@iScience -- check your PMs.