• merc@sh.itjust.works
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    7 hours ago

    For someone to get electrocuted, the current needs to flow through their body. Electricity always follows the path of least resistance, so there’s basically no way to do that from upstairs.

    If you attach both terminals of the battery (or a stripped extension wire) that wouldn’t do it. Assuming the pole is conductive, the electricity would just go into the screws, into the pole, across to the other screw and out. If the pole isn’t conductive it would probably do nothing at all. Maybe the floor is conductive, in which case it would go into the screw, through the floor/ceiling and out the other screw. There’s just no way to do it where the electricity flows from a screw, down the pole, into the body of the pole dancer, then somehow back out and up to the battery.

    Even if the person who owned the stripper pole wanted to electrocute themselves it would be difficult. Assuming the pole is conductive, if you attached one electrode near the ceiling and one near the floor, the electricity would just flow through the pole. It wouldn’t make a detour to go through the body of the pole dancer. You’d basically have to clip one side of the battery to your toe, the other side to the stripper pole, and then grab the pole with your hands. And, even then, it might not do it – you’d have to have sweaty hands and toes to make the path through your body conductive.

    I really hate the movie trope where people can get electrocuted by stepping into a puddle that has something electricity-related in it. It’s almost as bad as the trope that you get blasted backwards if you’re hit by a bullet / shotgun blast.

    • GreenKnight23@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      so there’s basically no way to do that from upstairs.

      Incorrect.

      stripper poles are tubes and spin on bearings. follow these instructions and you can most certainly electrocute someone with one.

      1. drill a hole in the center of the floor that feeds directly into the “tube” of the pole.
      2. strip 2-3 feet of a solid core copper wire(10-3) to bare copper and kink it into a zig-zag shape that gives it enough width to touch the pole inside.
      3. feed the wire down into the tube until it stops
      4. connect that wire to common
      5. connect the bolts to live
      6. turn the lights on when you hear them on the pole
      7. zap!
      • make sure you’re using a 30amp breaker and switch
      • prepare your butthole for the cops when they show up
      • accept you probably just killed a person. two stupids don’t make a less stupid.
        • GreenKnight23@lemmy.world
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          6 hours ago

          🤣 I really didn’t. I used to be a contractor and just understand how this stuff works.

          best way to not kill yourself is to know the thousands of ways to die.

              • merc@sh.itjust.works
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                2 hours ago

                I don’t need to, because I know how electrical circuits work. I don’t think you do. But, go on, explain why I’m wrong.

                • GreenKnight23@lemmy.world
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                  2 hours ago

                  I didn’t know I was talking to a professional here!

                  what would be the resistance of a plate of 16 gauge aluminum over 9 feet long?

                  • merc@sh.itjust.works
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                    2 hours ago

                    I’ll answer that for you, but first tell me what the (typical, average, ballpark) resistance of a human body is.

      • merc@sh.itjust.works
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        5 hours ago

        What makes you think that will work? That sounds like a very complicated way of just connecting the common to live with no human in the loop.

        • GreenKnight23@lemmy.world
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          2 hours ago

          the gauge of metal the pole is made from is pretty thin. on top of that, it’s very likely to be made from aluminum.

          if electricity follows the path of least resistance, it would be through the person.

          1. 70% water
          2. large contact surface
          3. typically two points of contact from lower to upper. this is why you need to lower the wire as low as you can down the center of the pole with most of the insulation still on. you want to force the electricity to travel as far as possible until someone touches it.
          • merc@sh.itjust.works
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            2 hours ago

            Ok, you’re still failing here. The water content of a human body is irrelevant. A large contact area is irrelevant.

            Let me make it easier for you. As I’m sure you know, to be electrocuted an electrical current needs to flow through someone’s body. What part of the neighbour’s body is the current going to enter, and which part is it going to leave?

        • PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca
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          4 hours ago

          Ikr, this at least makes the pole get hot because current is actually running through part of it.
          But at no point is a human part of the path of least resistance for the electricity.

          • GreenKnight23@lemmy.world
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            2 hours ago

            the pole wouldn’t get hot unless it was made of a ferrous metal like steel or iron. most of these poles should be made of aluminum.