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This is probably THE most Off-Topic topic in the Off-Topic thread, but:
How much of an electrical field do humans generate?
I'm just wondering if it's enough to actually affect electrical and electronic devices.
The reason I wanted to know was, wierd things happen when I'm around electrical things.
For example, one time, I picked up a mini-fluorescent flashlight bulb, and it lit up. Also, my mp3 player shorted out when I touched it. Seiously, I picked it up, turned it on, and then I heard a popping noise, followed by the infamous "mysterious blue smoke." If you haven't picked up on the fact yet, IT DOESN'T WORK ANYMORE. Could someone tell me what the hell is going on? Is it my imagination? Is it really bad luck? Do I have superpowers?
WHAT THE F&#~'S GOING ON?
~wistles~ Damn, it is the amazing Electro Shiny!!!
You seem to generate a large amount of static, bro. You scare me. :)
Director of Sales
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I have a friend who swears that his body kills watches. Says that anytime he's ever tried to wear a watch for any period of time, it just mysteriously quits within a few weeks.
But anecdotal evidence is generally misleading and useless.
However... It sounds like you need one of these.
I set off those security things in the front of stores all the time. I don't know why. I've even went as far as asking a guy at a local store if I could experiment with the alarm thingy. I passed threw with and with out my cell phone, ipod, shoes, belt, any metal, wallet, and I will still set them off half the time. I don't know what it is.
Fizz
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I have a friend who swears that his body kills watches. Says that anytime he's ever tried to wear a watch for any period of time, it just mysteriously quits within a few weeks.
But anecdotal evidence is generally misleading and useless.
Just a week ago, I had a relatively new watch stop...
...then start going backwards. Freaky.|
Director of Sales
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Just a week ago, I had a relatively new watch stop...
...then start going backwards. Freaky.
Have you picked up anything new recently, by any chance?
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Have you picked up anything new recently, by any chance?Just a week ago, I had a relatively new watch stop...
...then start going backwards. Freaky.
Not that I know of...
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Director of Sales
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Not that I know of...Have you picked up anything new recently, by any chance?Just a week ago, I had a relatively new watch stop...
...then start going backwards. Freaky.
Well...
Just to be safe, you'd better collect everything you and your entire family owns, sell it all, and get all new stuff.
Just to be safe.
Oooh! You are a superhero!
Electro Shiny, Defender of the Weak!
...
Or not. Whatever. :D
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Well...
Just to be safe, you'd better collect everything you and your entire family owns, sell it all, and get all new stuff.
Just to be safe.
Oooooh, nice product placement!
~wicked chuckle~ Oh, ok! Then you are a super villian! Doctor Electro-Shiny, Bringer of Technological Doom!!!
Yes. The human body can do two things.
1 - We produce a natural electic field. Perhaps you just have a stronger innate electric field.
2 - The human body can also hold an electric charge. Go across a carpet with bare feet and touch something metal. You will see a spark.
If you ever read Fortean Times (the journal of strange phenomena) it has stories about people like you fairly often (at least once or twice a year), and other odd things. A few issues back they had an article about people who survive lightning strikes. Many of them suffer low level pain and headaches when they go near electrical devices, so they end up getting rid of all their appliances because being near an operating TV or computer causes them pain. After she was struck by lightning this one lady could feel the pulse of the power line above her building so she had to move house.
I think the amount of static a person produces varies considerably from person to person. It's just one of those things. Remember that we've only had sensitive electronics for about 50 years now, so 100 years ago you would have never noticed anything. Bad luck for you that you live in the age of iPods. Or rather, bad luck for your iPod. :(
Thanks guys you just gave me a great idea for a character development for my Cyberpunk/Dark Conspiracy world. The cyborg/android hunter killer. Knows when tronnies are around by getting a headache or other pain somehow but isn't a psion of any sort. Thanks for the idea. And it works great because the tronnies use electroshock interrogation techniques when dealling with meats. I don't get to play in this world anymore but I still keep ideas for it should I ever find willing players.
Oh I also wanted to add a big sorry to mr shiny. I work on electronics and computer systems and have the opposite effect on things. Plenty of time someone will reset something and it still wont work but I step behind them and reset it again and it works that time.
Ever seen Unbreakable? Does this make us enemies?
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Oh I also wanted to add a big sorry to mr shiny. I work on electronics and computer systems and have the opposite effect on things. Plenty of time someone will reset something and it still wont work but I step behind them and reset it again and it works that time.
Ever seen Unbreakable? Does this make us enemies?
Something else that's rather ironic about the whole situation:
I work part time at a TV station.
Baaaaaad.
That happens to my cousin all the time.I have a friend who swears that his body kills watches. Says that anytime he's ever tried to wear a watch for any period of time, it just mysteriously quits within a few weeks.
A watch lasts about two weeks on me. If you coat the back of the watch with clear nail polish, it usually helps.
You should post this question on the Mythbusters website.
Contributor
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I also destroy watches and appear to have other weird electrical effects. But mostly I think it's coincidence.
That said, I remember when I was a kid being told by a guy at a science museum that if your rub your feet on a carpet and then pick up a flourescent tube bulb, you can light it with the static electricity.
Apparently they used to demonstate this with the whole audience holding hands and rubbing their feet, and then one guy at the end picking up the bulb, and it would light up quite brightly, but they stopped because the guy on the end would usually get a big shock as well...
Craig Shackleton,
The Rambling Scribe
It's very likely just a static charge (as said before).
At my first (real) job, we had a vendor of ESD (Electro-Static Discharge) Protection gear come in to give a presentation.
Unprotected electrical components can be killed by a mere 20 volt static discharge. If you can HEAR a discharge, it's at least 1000 volts. If you see it an arc, it's over 2000 volts. A discharge that can throw an arc more than about half an inch is probably over 10,000 volts!
Generally electronic devices are built so that any static discharges are fed through the case or some other metal pathway in such a way that it won't hurt the components. If you've got a cheap device or are just able to store large amount of static charge, you might be overcoming it's protection features.
NEVER touch the pins on your cell phone adapters (where it plugs in for data transfers and/or recharge. While these areas SHOULD be protected, that protection is only finite & can be reduced by repeated ESD hits. It might survive the first hit or even the first 100. Worse, transistors have a nasty habit of not dying COMPLETELY but just flaking out on you later. Makes determining a cause really tough!
As devices get smaller, protection circuits tend to get weaker.
While I don't recall killing devices, I can draw a powerful static arc. Especiall on "Casual Fridays"?!? Apparently has something to do with my shoes. All I have to do is sit down in my office chair, stand straight up (no/minimal sliding on fabric & no foot dragging on carpet), and I can pull a 0.25-0.5 inch arc everytime.
Seek metal handrails and other sources of "Ground" & frequently discharge. Again, it takes VERY little voltage to damage modern electronics. Far less than you can feel.
Another thing that can work: Increase the humidity. You can actually dump static charge into humid air just like touching a metal ground.
</electrical engineering geek-isms>
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Unprotected electrical components can be killed by a mere 20 volt static discharge. If you can HEAR a discharge, it's at least 1000 volts. If you see it an arc, it's over 2000 volts. A discharge that can throw an arc more than about half an inch is probably over 10,000 volts!
That's kinda scary. The biggest arc I can remember throwing was about an inch. Hurt like hell, too.
A watch lasts about two weeks on me. If you coat the back of the watch with clear nail polish, it usually helps.That happens to my cousin all the time.I have a friend who swears that his body kills watches. Says that anytime he's ever tried to wear a watch for any period of time, it just mysteriously quits within a few weeks.
My grandmother (RIP) had this same problem with watches. She finally found one that you had to wind up for it to run & that solved the problem.
How much of an electrical field do humans generate?
I did some research and found some information; I just don’t know how current it is because the article I read wasn’t dated…so take it with a grain of salt.
The upshot is that most human bodies generate an ambient static electrical field of just a few milliamps (level varies depending on research date and focus of study). The voltage varies widely throughout the day, but has been measured up to 4000 volts when force charged (like scooting your feet across the carpet on a cold, dry day).
If you have problems with electrical discharge or metallic objects reacting negatively to a touch, you may well carry around a larger than normal static charge. This may be because of the clothes you wear (prone to acquiring and keeping a high charge), the way you walk (shuffling or dragging your feet a lot), or several other factors, not all of which are behavioral in nature. You might have a physical chemical balance different from most people which leaves you prone to a higher charge than others. Having seen your post in the “Profound Thoughts” thread I point out the possibility that the two may be related. Research has shown that not only body chemistry but body electrical content can affect psychology and mood. You might literally suffer depression because of the high charge you carry around all the time. Something to look into, just a thought.
Many years ago i worked at a C.B. shop and i found that the RF energy that i was exposed to on a daily basis some how was stored in the body. my super power wasn't destroying electronics it was being able to disrupt the radio or tv as I would walk by them. It seems that I had more frequent headaches and was a little angrier at that time too.
Many years ago i worked at a C.B. shop and i found that the RF energy that i was exposed to on a daily basis some how was stored in the body. my super power wasn't destroying electronics it was being able to disrupt the radio or tv as I would walk by them. It seems that I had more frequent headaches and was a little angrier at that time too.
I used to have the same effects on TV and radio. Always called it my useless super power.
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Many years ago i worked at a C.B. shop and i found that the RF energy that i was exposed to on a daily basis some how was stored in the body. my super power wasn't destroying electronics it was being able to disrupt the radio or tv as I would walk by them. It seems that I had more frequent headaches and was a little angrier at that time too.I used to have the same effects on TV and radio. Always called it my useless super power.
Hate to sound like a broken record, but me too.
Hate to sound like a broken record, but me too.
I've had friends who refused to walk with me at night because the streetlights would go out when I walked under them (no I don't have light-up sneakers). I always assumed it was just coincidence. Now I wonder...
Hate to sound like a broken record, but me too.I've had friends who refused to walk with me at night because the streetlights would go out when I walked under them (no I don't have light-up sneakers). I always assumed it was just coincidence. Now I wonder...
I had that happen a few times and it caused folks to hum the Twilight Zone theme to me... but I chalked it up to a rather amusing kwinky dink.
Anyone here ever bend a stream of downward running water toward their finger? Funny how the only metaphysical type phenomena I've ever experienced personally are all electricity related. Figures it would just be science. {sigh}
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Something else a bit wierd:
I was working at the TV station yesterday, and I was using an old-school VHS titler. As soon as my fingers touched the keyboard of the titler, the TV turned off. When I went over to turn the TV back on, I got a rather large shock. Neither the titler or the monitor have worked since.
Something else a bit wierd:
I was working at the TV station yesterday, and I was using an old-school VHS titler. As soon as my fingers touched the keyboard of the titler, the TV turned off. When I went over to turn the TV back on, I got a rather large shock. Neither the titler or the monitor have worked since.
True story. I was training a group of new employees in an office and when I attempted to turn on the instructional videotape the screen went haywire. Along with a snowy screen there was an almost demonic growling sound. The new employees were looking amused but disturbed. Someone else hit stop and play and the tape engaged normally. Ego before business I said, "Let me try that again."
When I hit stop and play the thing went nuts again and the demon type growling got louder and seemed to be approaching language. My business partner assured the sitters, "He's not possessed. He can't be around electric things. This happens all the time."
All recording studios using Pro-tools and Logic have told me that something is up as well. When I explain to them that I'm a bit of a jinx the common comeback is, "I don't doubt it. This never happens."
One electrical engineer, a truly brilliant man name of Lance Massey, said he knew of a computer repairmen who was the complete opposite. Whenever this guy walked into a room suffering from a computer problem, there was no longer a problem. Seems miraculously convenient for the job.
But isn't that always the way it is? You try to show a repairman something broken and it suddenly seems fine, just so you'll have to come back again later sounding crazy.
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When I'm in our bedroom, I can "feel" my wife changing the channel on the TV in the living room. It feels like a slight presure, kind of like a sinus headach, but its's not intense enough to hurt. Sometimes this even wakes me up. This has been going on as long as I can remember. This only works with CRT TVs and monitors. Other types like LCD or DLP don't do that to me. The radio also gets real staticy when I touch it, or if it is already staticy, it will clear up. I don't short out electronics though and static shocks that I can feel are quite rare.
I've never been struck by lightning, but I was shocked really bad when I was young by a 220 dryer plug-in.
When I'm in our bedroom, I can "feel" my wife changing the channel on the TV in the living room. It feels like a slight presure, kind of like a sinus headach, but its's not intense enough to hurt. Sometimes this even wakes me up. This has been going on as long as I can remember. This only works with CRT TVs and monitors. Other types like LCD or DLP don't do that to me. The radio also gets real staticy when I touch it, or if it is already staticy, it will clear up. I don't short out electronics though and static shocks that I can feel are quite rare.
I've never been struck by lightning, but I was shocked really bad when I was young by a 220 dryer plug-in.
That's interesting. I was shocked at age five when I picked up a breached jackhammer power cable. I don't know how there'd be a correlation necessarily but hey... we're the weirdos who seem to upset reception so I suppose we'd all best start guessing.
Story #1:
One thing I used to be able to to with astounding accuracy was countdown from three to tell people when the lightning was going to flash the sky. For some reason I could only do that between age 14-18.
Story #2:
When I was sixteen I noticed one day that the radio station I had on turned silent when I stood in a certain place in the room. My best friend Tom and my girlfriend Laurie were coming over in a few minutes so I spent my time stepping into the spot, and out, in, and out. By they time they arrived I was fully enchanted with myself and demonstrated gleefully this new discovered super power. Tom tried it. It didn't work. Laurie tried it. It didn't work. When she stepped away in failure I merely put my hand over the spot, chest-level, and the radio station went silent. We began surmising how perhaps the radio waves were being affected by the metal frame of the bed but that didn't explain why I was the only once who set off the phenomena.
Two years later my friend Peter (brother of now ex-girlfriend Laurie) was coming over to jam. I was sitting on the floor of my living room writing when that exact same radio and radio station reacted to the ways in which I moved my pencil. On, off. On, off. Now, rather than be boggled by the event, I decide it's the metal tip of the pen that's affecting things and quickly set myself up to fool others into thinking I'm God. What would you do? I unlocked the door, turned the station up exceedingly loud, then shot back to a sitting position and, with the careful placement of a faber-castell #2, ushered silence.
When Peter walked through the door I said, "Peter?"
"Yes?"
"Let there be music."
And like a conductor I waved my mighty wooden baton and the room filled with thunderous melody of... the Turtles singing Eleanor. (Hallelujah Chorus would have been so much more apt for the scene)
"What the..."
So, it only happened twice, and both times with the same radio. But I got mileage out of it because I was lucky enough that my friends were around to share the moments.
Story #3:
BTW, my only other *THUPA POWAH is being able to tell you how long a minute is. People think I'm counting, but I'm really not. I was a insomniac child and I'd watch the LED for hours trying to fall sleep. Eventually I knew exactly when the number was going to change. I once saw they did a test for that very ability and the guy who came in first was an engineer who came within two seconds. By my standards, that winds up looking like a guess. I feel a minute pass. If only I could harness by station-silencing minute-knowing powers for the good of mankind.
*c. 2007, Rone Barton--Thupa Powah needs to be a brand of sports bars that allows you, when asked what you're eating, to shout, "I GOT THUPA POWAH!" and throw your hands up like a victorious head trauma patient.
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That's interesting. I was shocked at age five when I picked up a breached jackhammer power cable. I don't know how there'd be a correlation necessarily but hey... we're the weirdos who seem to upset reception so I suppose we'd all best start guessing.
Maybe there's a correlation here. When I was nine, I was shocked pretty bad (not enough to warrant an emergency room visit, but enough to burn the skin) when I stuck a bare copper wire into an electrical socket (don't ask me why). Possibly, large doses of electricity can permanently affect the normal amount of electrical energy discharged by the human body.
Maybe there's a correlation here. When I was nine, I was shocked pretty bad (not enough to warrant an emergency room visit, but enough to burn the skin) when I stuck a bare copper wire into an electrical socket (don't ask me why). Possibly, large doses of electricity can permanently affect the normal amount of electrical energy discharged by the human body.
Well, we've an empirical start. Now to make this real science we just need to get out there and electrocute kids and then watch 'em for a decade.
Seriously though, observation is the only way we'd be able to suggest a pattern because we can't electrocute kids (legally). I'd be curious if the others who've suggested strange electrical happenings were also severely zapped in their youth.
Seriously though, observation is the only way we'd be able to suggest a pattern because we can't electrocute kids (legally).
But electrocutin' liddle kiddies would be so FUN!
Maybe there's a correlation here. When I was nine, I was shocked pretty bad (not enough to warrant an emergency room visit, but enough to burn the skin) when I stuck a bare copper wire into an electrical socket (don't ask me why). Possibly, large doses of electricity can permanently affect the normal amount of electrical energy discharged by the human body.Well, we've an empirical start. Now to make this real science we just need to get out there and electrocute kids and then watch 'em for a decade.
Seriously though, observation is the only way we'd be able to suggest a pattern because we can't electrocute kids (legally). I'd be curious if the others who've suggested strange electrical happenings were also severely zapped in their youth.
Sadly i have to admit that other then a slight tingling i have never been zapped and my powers still exist, but since leaving the radio business it has reduced slightly, its been 8 years and i can still shut own radios.
Yes, but your work is almost the same thing... where we got a shot of hard liquor electrocution... you simmered comfortably in the stuff for years.
hehe is not this thread the premise of the Matrix movie? Humans generate both heat and an electrical field that can be converted to energy; add methane and you could get some serious energy with a uhm; proper diet.
I am not really sure why some humans have a greater or lesser electrical field than any other human, but it is certainly true; maybe it is not only field strength but phase. For some reason, I cannot keep an electrical watch working if I wear it continuously; is just pointless; the battery goes dead or the electronics get wiped; not so certain why exactly though I have some ideas as I do have a degree in electronics, just no measurable facts. I do no that various resistivity and conductivity measurements among humans really vary though I am not certain why. Certainly, the body is electical mechanical built on bio technology, but I would have expected a bodies ability to conduct or resist electricty to not be as variable as it seems to be and seems to not follow height, weight, ethnicity and might be due to diet and hydration levels.
I dont recommend you play with this sort of thing; the human nervous system uses low level electrical signals to control various body functions; you dont want to accidentally turn anything off or on by sending a matching signal. Both low level and high level electicity can be hazardous to human health.
I've mentioned this phenomena on bigger forums than this. No one disputed to claim but no one could relate either.
I've only met one other person who killed battery watches. A lady in her fifties.
So why are so many of us affected? Don't mean to be cutesy by suggesting a gamer connection... but I have to voice suprise at the oddness of running into so many people in one hobby-oriented place with a like, yet so unlikely a circumstance.
hmm; I doubt most gamers have the same diet; hehe; is their a connection between condutivity in humans and consuption of pizza; I doubt it; though tomatoes do have some interesing properties. Gamers and electrical fields; something to ponder. It could be that gamers just use more raw brainpower than most other people; active daydreams; character ideas, brainstorming for new adventure hooks; I certainly could see where increased brain activity and the stimulation of more areas of the brain through creativity and both left and right brain though would fire more electrons and increase the bodies electrical field; hmm; something to ponder.
While we are all brilliant, this is true...
I'm a vegan... so that sets me apart from the rest of you guys dietarily.
And I've known scores of professional writers whose watches never went dead. So I'm not sure I could correlate hyper-creativity with casio-b-gone.