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DISCUSS (45)

Idiot Cuts Electric Cord with Scissors

Posted by ralph on February 4, 2010

Looks like we have another nominee for a Darwin Award. Via Live Leak:

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  • GoodDoktorBad

    Painfully hilarious….

  • The Bean

    I guess if I was rounding my last hour of the 8 I just put in for the man I'd lose all logic too. Then again, probably not.

  • dumbsaint

    I wonder if he got any time at all to realise his folly

  • http://twitter.com/aarontyson Aaron Tyson

    I call BS on this one. You would have to be pretty stupid not to just unplug from the outlet.

  • harrytuttle27b6

    Jumping the circuit like that would only short through the scissors. They might get really hot and burn him, but there's little in the way of grounding him to the floor, therefore the current doesn't pass through his body.

  • GoodDoktorBad

    Its called Alternating Current (AC). You don't have to be at “earth ground” to get shocked. Electricity only needs a difference in potential to flow from one thing to another. You can get shocked….
    I wouldn't recommend that anyone follow your advice unless they need to jump start there heart or change there hairstyle to an afro.

  • TheRealJLM

    I can confirm this, I was a pretty electro-curious kid *twitch*

    That said I'm sure the guy survived just fine. I bet he felt like a douche for a few weeks though.

  • nobody

    That was beautiful

  • nobody

    And I bet he pooped his pants as well. I would have.

  • http://www.facebook.com/chelsea.rennert Chelsea Loraine Rennert

    dumbass lol

  • Young Bat

    There is the poor woman trying to do her work, and Mr Executive won't even be bothered to ask her politely if she could do that later, please. Or go and have a cup of coffee till the noise is done.You almost think it serves him right.

  • Jeff Wisniewski

    Tech support can fix a lot of problems, but they cannot fix stupid!.

  • atheistlibertariancriminalassh

    i say it looks real, w/ both his hands in the mix the path could have easily been across his chest and could easily have been fatal. that's what we're taught in school anyway. having performed an eerily similar bit of idiocy in my own past i can tell you that a] it hurts. b] it is scary as hell. and c] the current will jump right through the uninsulated tops of your sneakers and travel around the rubber soles to find its way to the earth. is dude an idiot and an asshole? sure, but so am i. so…

  • solaria

    It's possible that both blades of the scissors cut through the cord… so one blade would have been “hot” and the other blade “ground”. Full line voltage would then appear between the handles.The pivot of the scissors probably shorted some of that out, but not all of it. The shock would also make muscles contract, making it hard to drop the scissors during the shock. And if this is Europe, with 220VAC lines, this could really be dangerous

  • Nemo

    They should make this a commercial for anger management therapy.

  • egadsno

    He was not grounded, yes electricity can leak through your shoes but not when you are standing on a dry plastic carpet. The scissors are a dead short, meaning most of the current will only have gone through the scissors themselves. But still this is very dangerous as those types of vacuums can have around 900 watts of power running through them.

    If he cut the wires singularly then held one of each wire in a seperate hand then he would died

  • David

    I don't know if it's real but most of what is written below is wrong. Yes, you can get electrocuted. I did this exact same thing. I was removing old thick net cable (which is black) and accidentally cut a PC power cord. No, scissors are not a dead short, yes you will get shocked…ask me how I know.

  • what?

    Even if this is a fake he deserves to have died, just for making it :)

  • Alison

    Yes, because executives normally sit in cubicles, right? Not to mention that you don't actually know if he didn't already politely ask her to stop. I'm not saying it was a rational or reasonable response, but judging by the fact that no one's around and at my work the cleaning staff doesn't come until pretty late, he's probably been there for like 12+ hours and is at his wit's end!

  • billy

    is he dead?

  • Me!

    he wanted to stop it completely, not just turn it off

  • RobotBender

    Even then, the metal scissors would still conduct mist of the electricity across them. Just because it's AC it doesn't mean the basic rules of electricity don't apply. The scissors are the path of least resistance. You might get a little tingle, but that's probably it.

  • Young Bat

    Alison, “Mr Executive” was supposed to be sarcasm! I hadn't thought he might have been working long hours, though, and be at his wits' end. Do you notice how all the men comment on the technicalities of the electricity, and don't mention his rude treatment of the cleaner, her reaction, or how she'll be inconvenienced with no vacuum? Not criticism, only comment.

  • karl

    you implicate US-vacuums only got half the power of european ? or pic-lighter are deadly coz they got thousands of volts ?

  • http://www.somethingisawful.com/ Mispelled

    That video is old as dirt, I saw it about two years ago.

  • harrytuttle27b6

    I agree. There's no reason the excess juice would have traveled into the “shockee.” A/C or D/C, both need a completed circuit and will always find the path of least resistance. Additionally, any breaker or fuse blows considerably faster than what was shown here. What should have been seen is a bit of localized flash at the point where the scissors completed the circuit and maybe a bit of smoke where the superheated insulation on the cords smoked up from the 15 or 20amps (or European equivalent) before the breaker tripped.

  • harrytuttle27b6

    Where you standing on concrete? You might get a shock, but it would be very difficult to get electrocuted. Two different animals.

  • Munger2k

    They not heard of circuit breakers?

  • Gerard Xavier Marcel Depardieu

    fake

  • Blah, Blah, Blah

    To all the people saying that he would not be electrocuted, do some reading on electricity before you reply. Electricity follows the path of least resistance. He does not need to be grounded to be electrocuted, He is holding one end of the wire in his left hand ad the other end of the wire in his right. if he is touching the exposed conductors, he is completing the path.

  • solaria

    No, not half the power, half the voltage. US outlets run at about 120 VAC, 60Hz. 220VAC, 50Hz is common in Europe.

    If your hands are dry, touching 120 VAC will run about 1 mA through your body; a tingle that's all
    At 220 VAC, the current doubles. If your hands are also sweaty, the current easily approaches the danger zone…

  • solaria

    Well, maybe. The scissors have a loose connection at the pivot point so that they move easily… not a good electrical connection. If the two blades are touching the two wires, you would get line voltage between the handles. The blades are probably not making a solid connection to the wires either, so there'd be some melting and sparking, but not the 20+ amps to trip the breaker. You could still get line voltage between the handles, and 2 – 5 mA through the shockee.

    Don't think I'd like to try it.

  • mike

    Maybe I am wrong, but I don't think security cameras record sound all too often. For that reason alone I believe this is set-up, in which case I am let down. If you're going to fake it…just film it with a regular camera and get in some good over-acting.

  • LUNA

    his stupidity is the POINT

  • Irene

    How about this–how about the people who think it's fake give it a try? Hm?

  • SoundEngineer

    um… path of least resistance any of you? i'm more than a little bit sure that from scissors to body to ground is lower resistance than the electrical motor in a vaccum. and to the person who pointed out that 120VAC “only” puts 1mA thru the body, that's not a “tingle”… that's enough to lock your heart dead stop, or really any other muscle in your body.

  • SoundEngineer

    um… path of least resistance any of you? i'm more than a little bit sure that from scissors to body to ground is lower resistance than the electrical motor in a vaccum. and to the person who pointed out that 120VAC “only” puts 1mA thru the body, that's not a “tingle”… that's enough to lock your heart dead stop, or really any other muscle in your body.

  • ehhhh darwin award

    Taardvark

  • GoodDoktorBad

    Discuss electronic principles all you like. I've gotten unpleasantly shocked from live 120VAC 15-20amp
    sources to varying degrees from tingle to jolt. I've dealt with electrical equipment all my life as a profession. I'm aware of electrical principals. Yes, its unlikely the range of possible shocks you would recieve would kill you.
    Still its not a very pleasant sensation in most cases, and not a particularly healthy way to spend your time –playing electrical roulette with a vacuum cleaner cord. Silly…

  • GoodDoktorBad

    There would likely be a momentary arc and flash burn across the pivot of the scissors, probably blow a circuit breaker, possibly burn your hand while giving you a jolt at the worst case. How close your hand was to that arcing and the resistance of your skin (ie. sweat or even highly conductive rings of gold and silver) at that point would determine the shock value. The current across that arc would likely be very high but for a very short time as the breaker would trip quickly.

  • Anya

    You have way too much faith in humanity.

  • harrytuttle27b6

    I don't doubt that this could be quite unpleasant or even severely injurious, but my contention is that this is a staged video as it really doesn't represent what would actually occur if you took scissors to a live wire (I once took a knife to one…long story).
    What sort of pathology would drive someone to cut a line when the point would have been equally well made if he just unplugged it. I don't buy it.

  • GoodDoktorBad

    The video itself is, I'm reasonably sure, staged.

  • Anonymous

    According to OSHA, the amount of current required “lock your heart dead stop” is 10,000 mA, not 1 mA:

    1 mA – Perception level. Slight tingling sensation.
    5 mA – Slight shock felt; not painful but disturbing
    GFI circuit breakers generally trip at 5 mA
    6-30 mA – Painful shock, muscular control is lost.
    50 – 150 mA – Extreme pain, respiratory arrest
    1000 – 4300 mA – Ventricular fibrillation
    10,000 mA – Cardiac arrest

    And while it is true that electricity “follows the path of least resistance”, it also follows every other path in the circuit as well, including the “path of most resistance”. Fortunately this is true, otherwise there would only be one electircal device active in your house, the one with “least resistance”.

  • solaria

    According to OSHA, the amount of current required “lock your heart dead stop” is 10,000 mA, not 1 mA:

    1 mA – Perception level. Slight tingling sensation.
    5 mA – Slight shock felt; not painful but disturbing
    GFI circuit breakers generally trip at 5 mA
    6-30 mA – Painful shock, muscular control is lost.
    50 – 150 mA – Extreme pain, respiratory arrest
    100 – 4300 mA – Ventricular fibrillation
    10,000 mA – Cardiac arrest

    And while it is true that electricity “follows the path of least resistance”, it also follows every other path in the circuit as well, including the “path of most resistance”. Fortunately this is true, otherwise there would only be one electircal device active in your house, the one with “least resistance”.