[Jewelry making - Article 00859] - Re: [Orchid] Metal Shrunk by Powerful Magnetic Field?

[James Binnion]

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>     People talk about high voltage electricity (and I wrongly used the
>     term myself) being a killer, but it's really the current with
>     which that voltage flows that is the killer. Also I noticed that
>     articles mentioned "high power" with regard to the coin shrinkage
>     method, but power is to do with watts as in a light bulb and power
>     is measured in watts. 

    Helen I spent 15 years of my life working with electronics systems.
    Much of that time was working with radar and radio systems with
    power levels much greater than the power supplies that these guys are
    using for the coin shrinking. Power (watts) is amps times volts so
    the coin shrinkers are truly high power systems as they deliver huge
    amounts voltage and current. High voltage is much more dangerous than
    low voltage in virtually any circumstance. You are right that the
    current is what will kill you. However for an example while an
    automobile battery will deliver a significant amount of current
    (600-1000 amps) and all that is required to kill is about 15 milli
    amps, I would grab both terminals of a 12 volt auto battery without
    any concern for my safety but I will give wide berth to a 12 thousand
    volt 2 milliamp power supply as it would knock me across the room if
    I touch it. To get the current to flow through your body you must
    break down the skin resistance to allow the current to flow and to do
    this you need a certain amount of voltage, how much depends on
    several factors but when you are talking thousands of volts it
    doesn't really matter as there is more than enough to overcome any
    amount of skin resistance so if you come in contact with it and there
    is enough current present the odds are that it will kill you period
    end of story. However you can very often survive contact with the 120
    -240 volts that is present in a household electric circuit even
    though there is a huge amount of current available. 

>     This is wrong as the equipment uses high current to push high
>     voltage - not high power. 

    You have it backward the voltage (potential difference) is what
    allows the current to flow. The product of the voltage times the
    current is the power. 

Jim

James Binnion
jbin AT mokume-gane.com
James Binnion Metal Arts
http://www.mokume-gane.com
360-756-6550
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