- #1
Passiday
- 12
- 0
Hello
Ok, there's been another news in my area that a young woman was drying her hair, while she was in bath. Smart, huh. And the dryer fell out of her hands, and now she's dead.
My kids hear those news and they're shocked and all, but I'd like to explain my kids what actually happened there and why, so that they can apply this knowledge to protect themselves not only when in bath an drying hair, but in any dealing with electricity.
So, I understand that a persons health is severed when stream of electrons goes through her tissue. This, in turn, happens when the tissue is connected to electrodes with high enough potential difference to cause the electrons naturally floating there to run towards the high potential end, while there's fresh and plenty supply of new electrons from the low potential end (it's awkward that it's the "low potential" end where the electrons come from, but that's due to historical reasons, I guess).
I have problem, though, understanding where exactly a person in bath is exposed to the electrodes. If the dryer falls in, perhaps the water gets in between the + and - somewhere inside the dryer. Why doesn't it just cause short circuit and that's the end of the story? Or maybe the news are wrong and in fact the person got killed when she tried to fish the dryer out, thus putting herself between shifting + and - potential (by holding wet dryer in her hand) and the ground (non-isolated bath)?
Ok, there's been another news in my area that a young woman was drying her hair, while she was in bath. Smart, huh. And the dryer fell out of her hands, and now she's dead.
My kids hear those news and they're shocked and all, but I'd like to explain my kids what actually happened there and why, so that they can apply this knowledge to protect themselves not only when in bath an drying hair, but in any dealing with electricity.
So, I understand that a persons health is severed when stream of electrons goes through her tissue. This, in turn, happens when the tissue is connected to electrodes with high enough potential difference to cause the electrons naturally floating there to run towards the high potential end, while there's fresh and plenty supply of new electrons from the low potential end (it's awkward that it's the "low potential" end where the electrons come from, but that's due to historical reasons, I guess).
I have problem, though, understanding where exactly a person in bath is exposed to the electrodes. If the dryer falls in, perhaps the water gets in between the + and - somewhere inside the dryer. Why doesn't it just cause short circuit and that's the end of the story? Or maybe the news are wrong and in fact the person got killed when she tried to fish the dryer out, thus putting herself between shifting + and - potential (by holding wet dryer in her hand) and the ground (non-isolated bath)?