its all in the current, the higher the current the higher the chance youll end up in a box. Worst shock i got was from the phone lines. Was extending one of the phone sockets and being efficent i decided to wire up the first end so that the socket was live as soon as i had stripped the wires at the other end. (2 phone lines down Cat5e is bliss ). Any way ive always founf that the fastest way of stripping solid core wire is with my teeth, so under the desk i go with nothing but my mouth. ZAAAAAP!!!!! BANG!! AAAARG!!! I strip the first wire, no problem. the second wire get stripped and it contacts with the first which had slipped down from where it was resting. 90 volts through my mouth sends my head shooting upwards and bangs it on the bottom of the desk.
ouch... that can really tickle!! I still remember accidently touching the coil on a car... or the spark plug on a lawn mower.. not so fun times!
MMM phones, arent they great. I've done a little researching on them and just to put some myths to rest, when the phone is on the hook ("infinite" impedance) there is 48 VDC on the pair, when you pick up the phone(about a 180 ohm load usualy), the voltage drops to around 5-9 VDC. A ring signal is 90 VAC 20 Hz. There is typically an output impedance of 300 ohms on the phone line. So at ring, in a dead short it would put out 300mA and in the correct situations that could be letal. and LAGMonkey; I find that teeth also work well on some stranded wires especially 24-18 AWG.
One of the main factors which seems to be ignored in this thread is resistance. Human flesh provides anything from a few hundred ohms to millions of ohms resistance. If you touch across the terminals of a 9V battery with your finger you feel nothing. If you touch the same battery to your tongue (which is wet, thus has lower resistance) your tongue will draw a higher current from the same 9V battery and you'll get an unpleasant tingle. That is why shorting a 12V molex whilst modding generally won't hurt you - it is *capable* of delivering enough amps to kill you easily, but the combination of low voltage and high resistance on your finger means it can't. Try (actually, don't) shorting the same molex by stabbing the wires into your tongue whilst you're standing in the shower, then you'll definitely blow the household circuit breaker.
Reading all these stories reminds me of when i was younger, about 10. I started playing with RC car motors and such, until I ran out of 9v batteries. Being 10, I figured I simply needed another power source, "OH!" says I, "the outlet on the wall! There's power!" 2 wires, 2 holes. Long story short, !Flash-Bang! I blew half the sockets in the house, ruined that particular motor, and all I felt was a little pinch in my finger. I thought it was great fun.
I got 230V through my finger when I was like 9 from and outside light fitting. Couldn't remember much, just that I was 10 feet accross the lawn and on my back passed out
