Since pins on both sides are in reach, can be touched and usually are connected to a wallcharger with enough AMP to kill a human.
Would it be safe to touch both sides with one hand? With wet fingers?
Does the charger somehow communicate with the device before sending current?
Edit: I am in Europe so having 230V50hz, Charger is the classic 12W 2.4Amp USBA one.
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The block that you plug into the wall converts the big potentially dangerous amount of energy down to make only a small (safe) amount available to the cord to charge the phone. I think the voltage is reduced to 5 volts DC or thereabouts.
Honestly, with a dry body, you probably wouldn’t even feel anything below 30 volts or so. USB (which is what is carried on that cable) defaults to 5 volts. Your body is far too resistive of electricity for that to do anything you’d notice.
I have an iPad whose charger only does 5.1 volts, so it’s not going any higher. If yours is 2.4 amps at 12 watts, 12/2.4 = 5 volts as well.
You can’t force low voltages to go through things if the resistance is too high, and human skin has pretty high resistance. A car battery can output 400+ amps but at only 12 volts, it’s completely safe to touch both terminals of the battery as long as you’re dry. The battery *can’t* push all those amps because your body isn’t taking it, any more than it can push them through the open air if nothing were connected to them.
You are shocked by them but you won’t notice it unless there is a problem with the power supply. You cannot detect currents smaller than about 1mA, and the voltage levels of USB/Lightning is considerably less than that required to generate such a current through intact skin. If you touch it to a break in the skin, you may feel it since your body is much more conductive on the inside that the outside.
If there are issues with the power supply you may feel it. I’ve been shocked by touching a USB cable at a factory in China. Whatever supply they were using clearly had a floating output.
You are shocked by them but you won’t notice it unless there is a problem with the power supply. You cannot detect currents smaller than about 1mA, and the voltage levels of USB/Lightning is considerably less than that required to generate such a current through intact skin. If you touch it to a break in the skin, you may feel it since your body is much more conductive on the inside that the outside.
If there are issues with the power supply you may feel it. I’ve been shocked by touching a USB cable at a factory in China. Whatever supply they were using clearly had a floating output.
You are shocked by them but you won’t notice it unless there is a problem with the power supply. You cannot detect currents smaller than about 1mA, and the voltage levels of USB/Lightning is considerably less than that required to generate such a current through intact skin. If you touch it to a break in the skin, you may feel it since your body is much more conductive on the inside that the outside.
If there are issues with the power supply you may feel it. I’ve been shocked by touching a USB cable at a factory in China. Whatever supply they were using clearly had a floating output.
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