Can the 9 volt lick test kill you?

[Faderoktopus]

A current that passes through the heart might kill, even though it isn't particularly powerful. So tongue, no problem, thumbs, bad idea. Of course, having a heart condition might speed things along.

 

[Steveaux]

It's not the battery that kills the person, it's the stepped-up voltage and proximity to their heart.

I can imagine the warning being so lengthy that it would require batteries to be sold in pairs, with "see other battery' on the first one.

The Warning Label on BIC lighters used to say, "Do Not Use Near Fire or Flame".

 

[knigel]

I think I saw 9 Volt Lick Test open for Interpol in 2003.

 

[BassPenguin22]

I absent mindedly put the magical magnetic Macbook charger plug in my mouth while it was plugged in... It partly cured my constant want to fiddle with things XD

 

[andvari7]

As someone who gets paid to test batteries, I feel this obligation to opine on the subject. First, the lick test is a nine-year-old's rite of passage, and it sickens me to hear about parental intrusion into rituals in which they themselves partook. Second, nobody dies from the lick test, and it occurs to me that I just spoke as an out-of-practice anthropologist, and not as an exhausted battery technician who just spent eight hours driving a box truck from Indianapolis.

Buy a Pedal Power 2 Plus and a Pedal Power Digital, if the temptation is too great.

 

[onda'bass]

I'm still here so......no

 

[Porkbun]

I absent mindedly put the magical magnetic Macbook charger plug in my mouth while it was plugged in... It partly cured my constant want to fiddle with things XD

Ive done the same thing. It hurts a lot more than a 9v and for longer

 

[MikeBass]

Why would you put your tongue on something that could have been touched by dozens of other people's tongues (assuming all parents are like you)?

That's what I tell the droves of women at my gigs......

 

[Chef]

-snap!-

classic mikebass......

 

[john_g]

No no, its like the ninja death punch. You die 40 to 60 years later.

 

[Whirly]

You guys stop it, you are making me smile. This is a recession dammit, Act like it.

 

[MikeBass]

I regularly test all kinds of things with my tounge to see if they're good.... just sayn...

See.....you guys are making this WAAAYYY too easy....
So, in my attempt to NOT have Chef ban me, I'll leave this alone.
But Chef, you know, I mean you REALLY know how tough it is for me NOT to comment.....

 

[singlemalt]

Further research into all things 9 volt reveals that you can remove genital warts by killing HPV with, you got it, a 9 volt!

Urban dictionary turned up some new usages as well.

Moderators, thanks for your patience, I put this under effects because that's where I usually put 9 volt batteries.

Gentlemen carry on!

 

[dgrady77]

Does anyone know if it'd affect a pacemaker or medical condition?

I guess it would depend on the pacemaker or medical condition. There was a time when they said you shouldn't stand too close to a microwave, but that's been disproven. Now they're telling us not to put the cell phone within 6 inches of them, but I've been told that will be a thing of the past soon, too. For some reason though, the official list of Dos and Don'ts that I got when I had my ICD implanted (at the ripe old age of 31) didn't include anything about licking a 9v battery. Just in case, I think I won't try it.

 

[walterw]

Actually, by putting the probes deep into his thumbs, the current would then have a direct path through his heart (at 565 mA of current, 5x the lethal amount) blood has such low resistance that he basically created a "dead" short (pardon the pun!)

500 mA from a 9V battery? much less from an ohmmeter, which i would expect to produce much less current than the entire capacity of the battery running it.

 

[anonymous122511]

500 mA from a 9V battery?

Maybe peak for a few milliseconds but I'd think that would fall off very fast.

 

[mepex]

The current will go through the path of least resistance. If the terminals are very close together, like the 9V battery, the current will go from one terminal, across the surface of your tongue, and to the other terminal. You won't be able to measure any current flow anyplace else, like your heart muscle.

Keep on lickin'. That's what I do.

*EE degree

 

[boomertech]

The 500+ mAh rating of a 9V alkaline battery is the capacity in hours. Which means that if your device draws 500mA then you will get 1 hour of battery usage before it is basically dead. If your device uses 1A then, in theory, it would only last ½ hour. If your device uses 50mA then you get 10 hours of battery…. there are always internal resistances in all batteries that limit its maximum current output.

-Frank

 

[slurpy]

i've been told it will. doesn't stop me from lick testing though

 

[Zooberwerx]

The current will go through the path of least resistance. If the terminals are very close together, like the 9V battery, the current will go from one terminal, across the surface of your tongue, and to the other terminal. You won't be able to measure any current flow anyplace else, like your heart muscle.

Keep on lickin'. That's what I do.

*EE degree

This is why it's so difficult to electrocute somebody...the human body is a terrible conductor relatively speaking. On a brighter note...

How many of you remember the Presto hot dog cookers? You essentially pierced each end of the weiner on opposing electrode "skewers", closed the lid, and (with a nod to The Green Mile), "roll on two!" The dogs tasted terrible and you had to have court-appointed witnesses before operating.

Riis