Hi, thought I'd visit from the plumbers forum and throw this item of discussion to the electrical engineers on here. Please be aware this is NOT an experiment I actually plan to try!
In "Goldfinger", James Bond electricutes a man by throwing an electric resistance heater into an enamelled cast iron bath.
The man is sitting in the bath, fully dressed, with his back to the taps and the waste (both presumably are in some way earthed) and he is leaning forward such that he is in actual contact with the water and the (insulating?) enamel of the bath only.
My question is, would the man actually (necessarily) sufffer a fatal electric shock?
My reasoning is as follows: the electric heater already contains both phase and neutral (and possibly CPC), so throwing it into the bathtub is likely to result in a mild overload current between the phase and neutral, with no real need to run through the bath water to reach the earthed waste outlet on the bath. That a fuse eventually blows is suggested by the fact that the current eventually ceases. The bath is full of water which, while a conductor, is not an especially good one, so there is no reason to assume the current would rather run to earth through several feet of water and the man's body, than simply short to neutral or earth which are both contained within the electric heater. The man is wearing trainers, so cannot come into direct contact with the resitance windings on the heater (and, looking at the footage on Youtube it is clear that he does not).
My feeling is, that the man, even if he recoils from the heater and touches the earthed taps, is in about as much danger as a bird on high-tension overhead cable. I realise it only takes a few mA to stop the heart - I just can't see why the electrical current would choose to run through the man in the first place. Unless, or course, the plug or cable on the heater is faulty and is only connected to live, without N or CPC side, in which case the villain is singularly unfortunate.
What do you make of this? With most people, this discussion normally ends with 'everyone knows electrical heaters are dangerous in wet environments', but that isn't a technical answer and doesn't actually explain what is going on in the film. In any case, in the film, the heater throws an orange arc several inches into the water, which seems quite unlikely in the real world. Having read pages of debate regarding the dangers of neon screwdrivers, I'd love to have your outlook on this film scene.
In "Goldfinger", James Bond electricutes a man by throwing an electric resistance heater into an enamelled cast iron bath.
The man is sitting in the bath, fully dressed, with his back to the taps and the waste (both presumably are in some way earthed) and he is leaning forward such that he is in actual contact with the water and the (insulating?) enamel of the bath only.
My question is, would the man actually (necessarily) sufffer a fatal electric shock?
My reasoning is as follows: the electric heater already contains both phase and neutral (and possibly CPC), so throwing it into the bathtub is likely to result in a mild overload current between the phase and neutral, with no real need to run through the bath water to reach the earthed waste outlet on the bath. That a fuse eventually blows is suggested by the fact that the current eventually ceases. The bath is full of water which, while a conductor, is not an especially good one, so there is no reason to assume the current would rather run to earth through several feet of water and the man's body, than simply short to neutral or earth which are both contained within the electric heater. The man is wearing trainers, so cannot come into direct contact with the resitance windings on the heater (and, looking at the footage on Youtube it is clear that he does not).
My feeling is, that the man, even if he recoils from the heater and touches the earthed taps, is in about as much danger as a bird on high-tension overhead cable. I realise it only takes a few mA to stop the heart - I just can't see why the electrical current would choose to run through the man in the first place. Unless, or course, the plug or cable on the heater is faulty and is only connected to live, without N or CPC side, in which case the villain is singularly unfortunate.
What do you make of this? With most people, this discussion normally ends with 'everyone knows electrical heaters are dangerous in wet environments', but that isn't a technical answer and doesn't actually explain what is going on in the film. In any case, in the film, the heater throws an orange arc several inches into the water, which seems quite unlikely in the real world. Having read pages of debate regarding the dangers of neon screwdrivers, I'd love to have your outlook on this film scene.
