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mialinay
· 4 years ago
· FIRST
What kind of thin ass ceiling/floor is that?
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guest_
· 4 years ago
Lol. Yeah. I mean- if they used very long screws (which these appear much thinner than screws of that length typically are) or if they somehow (?) drilled into the upper sub floor directly instead of a stud- maybe? For a light or something where you’d be possible working behind the sheet rock I’d be more able to see it. I find it unlikely but possible a 2 story rental would have exposed/bars ceilings (unless it were maybe a home or non residential space..?) but either way- if they secured it to the sub floor with deck screws... you won’t need the car battery for someone to get hurt most likely... just a little time.
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Edited 4 years ago
guest_
· 4 years ago
A healthy car battery is about 12.7 volts on average, 550-1000 amps is common. The combination of amperage and voltage in a car battery is high enough to kill under “Goldilocks” circumstances- but while the amperage is impressive- the resistance of human skin tends to be on average about 100k ohms dry and 1,000 ohms wet. The body tissues inside the body (of a shock penetrates or is placed inside the body) is about 500 ohm. So from a car battery alone, you’d likely see a current of 0.1ma (dry) or 12-24ma wet. Current may begin to be painful above 5 ma and is almost always painful above 10. So a car battery alone without step up transformer COULD theoretically cause an unpleasant shock in this situation... but...
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guest_
· 4 years ago
Where is your ground? The residential floor- if not wet- is unlikely to make a good ground. Outside slab housing it is safe to assume most home floors aren’t grounded, and the materials are non conductive. So what does our circuit look like? Positive and negative from the battery go to the stripper pole and.... where does our current flow?
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guest_
· 4 years ago
You now have a conductor- a metal object- in between two terminals of a large battery. The metal pieces act as resistors. If the current is able to flow, it will very likely flow from the positive straight to the negative of the battery. Heat will build up in the metal and the battery. What happens next depends on a lot of things- firstly wether the screws you used as contacts are actually in communication with each other- IE if they secure directly to a conductive flange in a way that allows current to travel from one screw to the other or not.
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guest_
· 4 years ago
We then have to ask if the pole is made such that the screws allow a path for current to the actual pole, and if the pole is built so that a current will pass to the SURFACE of the pole and not an inner structure. A lot of variables come in to play- but very likely- you’d end up hooking battery up to a large resistor and then to itself.
guest_
· 4 years ago
Best case in that likely scenario- the resistance would be too high for current to flow at all, or there would be some current flow that due to the size of the the conductor, heat and current would be spread over so much surface area that it would be negligible. Worst case- you’d basically be shorting a battery and it isn’t THEM you’d be “pranking,” it would be YOU when the battery exploded or caused a fire in your living room.
guest_
· 4 years ago
Tl:dr- if you hook a 9v battery up to a metal park bench will anyone get electrocuted? No. The resistance of the bench, the resistance of the person- they are too high. The area is too large. You CAN be electrocuted by a car battery- even killed. But- electricity requires a path to ground and the voltage/amperage or a car battery alone isn’t high enough to do the job in the most likely case here. The floor of most houses isn’t grounded and isn’t a good conductor. The battery itself makes an “easier” path to ground. That’s IF the screws and pole are set up in a way that the positive and negative side of the circuit even have a closed path to each other.
jaharien
· 4 years ago
As an electrcian, this post makes me happy. The only thing I can think of to ruin this guys day is see if you can access the service room (in my experience unlocked half the time and pitiful security to boot.) And see if you can remove the neutral of the feed going to his apartment. Anything run a multibranch will go from 120v to 240v and will lose the rest.
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iccarus
· 4 years ago
so, you're saying, hook up to mains power and bypassing the circuit breakers is the optimal way to go?
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guest_
· 4 years ago
Lol. Thank you jaharien. We try.
guest_
· 4 years ago
I mean- probably the simplest and easiest way (I am NOT advising or advocating this- this is hypothetical) would be to wait for them to be out of the house and cut the excess threads off then drill out the screws. Leave a few mm of one or two to keep the pole upright, but now the pole won’t bear weight and will, if not immediately, certainly with any vigorous or acrobatic use, fall with them on it. You could step that up and remove the fasteners and replace them with quick disconnects facing you- then wait to hear them using the pole and drop out the hardware. That has a larger chance of your involvement being discovered.
guest_
· 4 years ago
I mean... there are tons of things one could do. Probably though- I’d go talk to them, and work out what they were going to do about the damage to my floor. If it is a rental, you may also be able to get them fined or evicted if they put up the pole against the rental agreement as most rentals don’t even actually allow hanging tacks on the wall let alone drilling and securing load bearing assemblies without authorization. But I’d try to talk civil first. We are neighbors after all and you have to live with them. I’d rather not live worrying. About when and how they’d be getting the payback on me.
