alkaloid

If you peed onto a high voltage object, can you get electrocuted? Can the stream of pee conduct electricity back to the source?

feelgood

Yep then again, why the hell would you?

I had to do some research and endure some werid shit (Including some people thinking drinking urine is a health benefits) to find out what's the contents of urine. I found a webpage that says that the common contents of urine is tritium. So, I checked into the properties of tritium. It has the ability to carry some electrons so, your piss is gonna electric the living shit outta you if you try to pee on the plug if you miss the toliet.

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Redlemon

According to the television program Mythbusters, no. The problem is that you don't have a constant stream of urine; it breaks up into 'raindrops' pretty quickly. They had to use a one inch diameter stream hitting something a foot away before they were able to generate a return current.

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dickdoc

"Tritium" is heavy hydrogen or H3, a rare radioactive isotope and certainly not found in urine. The most commen components (besides water) are Na+ and K-, and Cl-. Salt, and waste proteins.

Redlemon is right. Urine is a conductor but you need a continious stream to conduct.

krwlz

All I know is that my cousin pissed on an electric fence, and he said it hurt...

VitaminH

Tritium is not H3, it is heavy hydrogen. It's nucleus has one proton and two neutrons, instead of the normal single proton that is in hydrogen. It is NOT in your urine, dickdoc is right about that.

Urine does have Na+ and Cl-, it will generally have not have ANY K- because K- doesn't exist, it may have a small amount of K+ which really depends on how much you've takin in. Also saying 'salt' is redundant because salt is the combo of NaCl... There aren't any proteins in your urine either, unless you have a kidney disease all proteins are kept in the bloodstream. One of the other main components of Urine is Urea which is generally a byproduct of protein breakdown...finally you'll probably have some creatinine in there as well. Water is going to be the main component, obviously.

Urine CAN carry a current, but it all depends on what you've eaten that day and such. I don't know if the old peeing on the electric fence really hurts, but I do have a friend who claims to have done it as a kid, and said that it shocked him. If you're debating whether or not to piss on something electrified, I'd reccomend against it.

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MSD

Well, I made myself a guinea pig for you guys when I tested the rumor that peanut butter works better than shaving cream (I did end up with less razor burn and a closer shave.)

Looks like I'm going to need to find myself an electric fence.

Maybe I'll just put one contact of an ohmmeter near the top of the stream of urine and another one on the ground. Low voltage is your friend.

splck

Piss on a 500kv line...I guarentee you'll feel it...until you pop.

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Fremen

Heheh, I saw that episode, too.
They rigged the dummy to "pee" on an electric rail and it wouldn't electrocute it until they put it so close to the rail, a person would have had to kneel down on the ground and piss directly on it for it to kill them.

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Shadowman

Your urine should be able to carry the flow of electrons, since the particles (as mentioned Na+, CL- K-) can become charged, and allow the flow of electrons, altho Im not sure at what voltage this would occur. If a stream of water in a shower can conduct 240V, then Im sure a stream of urine could conduct voltage too, since it has more free ions. Im willing to test this theory, but only on say, 50V! :-)

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spectre

Urine can conduct electricity, but as redlemon already stated, the flow isn't steady enough to conduct the current back to the person urinating.

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Jonsgirl

Same thing happened to my neighbor when he was about 10. He screamed and curled up in a little ball and had to have a catheter for the next couple of days.
Yeah, I'd say piss definately conducts electricity.

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maxero

so wouldnt it depend on how much pressure you can build up in your bladder?

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Sledge

Oh, man. Please don't. Fried penis is always bad.

numist

SelfDestruct - Peanut Butter? really? where is this fantastic thread that I must see in order to make my face kissably soft so the women will like me?

Electric fence.. please dont, theres no point in losing a good mod.

MSD

Well, the voltmeter doesn't lie. At a spread of 3 feet, a slightly unpleasant tingling sensation was noted (12V battery-powered meter) and resistance varied from continuity to 3600 ohms.

I can't seem to find the peanut butter thread, but I guarantee it left my face feeling smooth and moisturized.

aurigus

I think this was done in CKY 4 - someone peed on an electric fence and it looked like it hurt like hell. Of course, he could have been faking.

For those who dont know; CKY is a video along the lines of jackass and with some of the same people, for example Ryan Dunn and Bam.

VitaminH

Thanks for the test man, you really didn't have to put your...parts on the line for the sake of this thread, but it is appreciated.

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mtsgsd

I know people who've been shocked pissing onto an electric fence.

There was also an incident in the news a few years ago when a drunk died by pissing onto the 3rd rail of a commuter train. This was in the Chicago area. Sorry I can't remember more specifics, but it did happen.

shakran

well if we're gonna get scientific here, <i>table</i> salt is NaCl, and is actually the combination of a salt (sodium) and chlorine. Saying "salt" is not redundant because salt is not the combo of NaCl. Salt is any alkali metal (period 3 of the periodic table). The "salt" category includes lithium, potassium, sodium, rubidium, cesium, and francium.


And back to the original topic, yes, you can get yourself shocked if you piss on an electric fence. Mythbusters or not, I've seen it happen.

skier

yep same here. Go out to the country- any ranch that has electric fencing will probably have a story about this type of electrocution.

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BurntToast

Now I want to look for an electric fence.............

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monkeysugar

Growing up in the country with lots of bored kids with nothing to do, and the general stupidity that often comes from groups of bored young boys, I can say without a doubt that it is possible to shock yourself by peeing on an electric fence. However, I am a bit skeptical about the idea of being able to electrocute yourself by peeing on a high voltage object. I have no evidence to back this up, I'm just kind of thinking it out.

When many muscles recieve an electric shock, they contract. Going back to the electric fence stuff, we learned that if you grab onto the wire, it was hard to remove our hand when we got shocked. From then on, we touched the wire with the back of our hands, or with a fingertip. I would think that in theory, the muscles that control the stream of urine would contract as well when peeing on an appropriately high voltage object, thus shutting off the flow of urine.

You might be able to get a big shock from peeing on a high voltage object, but I'd imagine that the majority of damage would be isolated to your penis. This is considering my "penis muscle contraction" hypothesis has any merit.

If this reasoning sounds way out of line to you, feel free to correct or comment on this.

*edit* I forgot to point out that many electric fences are set to "pulse" electricity. on for a few seconds, off for a few seconds. Whether or not it is relevant, it's an interesting tidbit.

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kel

I thought current always takes the shortest path, if so why would it venture off into the stream of liquid?

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skier

:P because that liquid connects to your body, which is connected to the ground. The current indeed finds the shortest path, which is not 1 1/2 miles down the fence, but through your dick and down your leg.

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subnet_rx

haha

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DrJekyll

Seems to me that one should clarify that there's a difference between 'shock' and 'electrocution'. Being shocked to death is electrocution...hence 'electrocuted to death' is redundant.

I'm willing to throw my opinion in with monkeysugar - it'd be extremely difficult to electrocute yourself.

woody3rd

I also fell for the electric fence trick when my cousin dared me to pee on the strand of wire running along a fence to keep the horses in. I was eight years old and was not aware of this electric fence technology. So, I thought it was an easy dare, until my willy started stinging and I did a little dance to my cousin's amusement.

alkaloid

The wealth of anecdotal and empirical observations as well as many good ideas presented here are impressive. If the source of the pee and the electrified object is sufficiently far apart, then many seem to be suggesting that the stream of pee would not conduct electricity. However, experiences of individuals such as woody3rd, who have actually peed on electrified object, seem to indicate that there are cases when the stream pee will conduct electricity.

So if we are given the physical parameter of the pee stream, such as the rate of flow and diameter, then we can calculate the maximum distance it can conduct electricity! This is fascinating. Thanks.

lightning

I encouraged my little brother to pee on an electric fence when we were in elementary school... he screamed bloody murder.
I had to beat him up every day for a week to keep him from telling our mom on me.

Lebell

When I was getting regular literature while I worked in the Safety Biz, one article detailed a young man who climbed a high tension electrical tower and took a pee.

He died.

Yes, it is VERY possible.

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shakran

nope. You can be electrocuted while wearing shoes. While the shoes may act as an insulator, if the current is strong enough it will go right through the insulator.

orphen

i can't believe you actually did it... wow