ADS

Coby:

So if I am in good contact with earth and I touch a hazardous live line conductor, the trip will trip and I won't feel a thing - correct, no argument there.
Sadly I have much argument  with that assertion.  Depending on contact resistance of course, if there is current flow (you are earthed) you can feel a lot while the RCD trips - that fraction of a second it takes to do its disconnection of supply thing is long enough to realise you cannot breathe, and afterwards can leave you sore and shaking for several minutes - it saves your life, sure, but it is not fun.
If you are not well enough earthed to pass enough current, it does not trip


If I am not in good contact with earth and I touch a hazardous live line conductor, the trip will not trip and I will feel "nary a tingle" - you have obviously never done any electrical installation work in your life!
Again, that really is true  - stand on a plastic bucket, do not lean on the masonry wall, and have only point contact with live, and I assure you will feel nothing, because only a few microamps of displacement current will flow. Unless you are very unusual you will be incapable of feeling 50Hz AC currents less than ~ mA, and yet will be in severe pain much above 10mA.Please do not consider this as advice to try except under carefully controlled conditions.



You're simply trying to invoke chaos theory into a subject that is basically very simple gentlemen. I'm afraid this has nothing to do with  chaos theory  interesting though it is; the physiology of electric shock is a statistical but perfectly well behaved function of the current.

 

And

Coby:

5mA can kill
Again, I disagree, Only if it makes you fall down the stairs or if you are already weakened by other factors. There is a very good reason UK RCDS are set to trip off between 15 and 30mA, and it is to do with the current that healthy people will survive. Of course if you are trapped next to a hot radiator by some other cause, that may well lead to burns, and if enough surface is involved, injury and death.

 

Coby:

So if I am in good contact with earth and I touch a hazardous live line conductor, the trip will trip and I won't feel a thing - correct, no argument there.
Sadly I have much argument  with that assertion.  Depending on contact resistance of course, if there is current flow (you are earthed) you can feel a lot while the RCD trips - that fraction of a second it takes to do its disconnection of supply thing is long enough to realise you cannot breathe, and afterwards can leave you sore and shaking for several minutes - it saves your life, sure, but it is not fun.
If you are not well enough earthed to pass enough current, it does not trip


If I am not in good contact with earth and I touch a hazardous live line conductor, the trip will not trip and I will feel "nary a tingle" - you have obviously never done any electrical installation work in your life!
Again, that really is true  - stand on a plastic bucket, do not lean on the masonry wall, and have only point contact with live, and I assure you will feel nothing, because only a few microamps of displacement current will flow. Unless you are very unusual you will be incapable of feeling 50Hz AC currents less than ~ mA, and yet will be in severe pain much above 10mA.Please do not consider this as advice to try except under carefully controlled conditions.



You're simply trying to invoke chaos theory into a subject that is basically very simple gentlemen. I'm afraid this has nothing to do with  chaos theory  interesting though it is; the physiology of electric shock is a statistical but perfectly well behaved function of the current.

 

And

Coby:

5mA can kill
Again, I disagree, Only if it makes you fall down the stairs or if you are already weakened by other factors. There is a very good reason UK RCDS are set to trip off between 15 and 30mA, and it is to do with the current that healthy people will survive. Of course if you are trapped next to a hot radiator by some other cause, that may well lead to burns, and if enough surface is involved, injury and death.