This has bugged me for years but I only just now finally got around to writing about it.

@badastro I always 'kind of' knew about this issue. But when I worked in plastic films plant we had to check static charge on the rolls of film. It would regularly read 8-10 thousand volts, but all it would do is make the hair on your arm stand up. Meanwhile the 12 volt batter in your car can kill you. Fascinating stuff, electricity.

@SteveJB You start your car with 'batter'!? @badastro

@greenpete @badastro After making waffles. Doesn't everyone?

@badastro Have you been met with much resistance?
Great explanation, thanks!

@SteveJB @badastro

@badastro I won a Scrabble game at MIT by pointing out that I could play "NEWTON" as the term for a unit of force, not a person's name.

@badastro

Good writeup. I was once hit by a 15,000 volt capacitor, but don't know the actual voltage that went through my upper body. Perhaps a hundred volts between two points... It was a very loud explosion and left me totally blind for a few minutes, soaked with sweat, very sore muscles, but still aware I was standing. Interestingly, no burn marks or identifiable injuries. I measured 7000 volts left on the capacitor when my vision came back and finished up my work...

@badastro Model trains usually run at 12v (at full speed). But you can put your fingers on the tracks, and nothing will happen. A 12v car battery, on the other hand.

@badastro But.... I find that talking about electricity via analogies to other forces, like gravity, or moving fluids in pipes, are helpful a bit, but always break down. Electricity is it's own thing.

@badastro OMG this is awesome, but I have to admit I was one of those using the nonsensical units and I should know better. I'm going to go sit in the corner and sob with my shame now.

@14mission I have held both terminals of a car battery many times. As with the model railway, you don't feel anything. How can it electrocute you?
@badastro

@badastro Since decibels are a measure based on a reference, I propose a dBAU referenced to the AU. Then you could say that the car is about -208 dBAU away.

Excellent write-up.

Maybe you could have added that volts x amperes is power, which is energy per unit time. So a high value of volts x amperes (watts or kilowatts) hitting a person implies that person getting zapped by a large amount of energy in an instant. (I am ignoring nuances of DC/AC current, the basic point still holds.)

We should start talking about getting hit by so many kilowatts of electrical power!

@badastro We had an optics table in the lab that housekeeping kept dusting… and knocking mirrors out of alignment. So we put up a sign that read “Danger! 10,000 Ohms”. Problem solved, except that the lowest-ranking grad student had to dust it.

@badastro "So, the higher the rock is dropped from, the more force it can exert."

Terminal velocity joined the chat.