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It’s 100% current, but the current that matters is the current through you. The resistance between your hands is roughly 3 kΩ at low voltages and about 1 kΩ at 220V. You need about 5 mA DC or 1 mA AC to feel anything, which means you need about 15V DC if you’re the only resistance in the circuit.

The current at your outlet will be ~0.05A if the only path between hot and neutral is the transformer. If you add an alternate path, you allow for up to 25A or so before the breaker cuts the circuit. 25A would mean that the resistance between hot and neutral is about 8Ω. If you are the alternate path, there will be about 220V/1k=220mA going through you, which is about 8x the amount needed to cause you to go into cardiac arrest.

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LurkingLuddite@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Nope. Circuit breakers do not break on absolute current values. Ever. Period. At all. Even a basic spec sheet will inform you as much…

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- kkj@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  
  Nope. Circuit breakers do not break on absolute current values.
  
  Huh, TIL.
  
  Ever. Period. At all.
  
  That doesn’t seem to be supported by my research. Standard breakers are designed to trip based on a function of over-current and time, but that doesn’t preclude any breakers from using current alone.
  
  Even a basic spec sheet will inform you as much…
  
  It won’t. I checked. A more detailed spec sheet will, but not a basic one.
  
  It’s why many euro firms make fun of American standards: They’re literally not expressive of reality.
  
  They sure look like they are. The rating is the current that the breaker can sustain indefinitely at the reference temperature. And it sure looks like the EU rates the the same way.
  
  Even GFCI’s can shock the fuck out of you in certain circumstances.
  
  Of course they can. You aren’t a ground fault. A load of 100mA on a GFCI is perfectly normal, and the same load will kill a human very quickly.
  
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  - LurkingLuddite@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    If you cannot understand the BASIC fact that a circuit breaker can ABSOLUTELY conduct more energy than its rating before it pops… then you are simply too stupid to understand what I said. Period. Absolutely. Good job being so dim.
    
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  - LurkingLuddite@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    They look like they are … to an ignorant incapable of reading comprehension. Which is one reason why the standards are made fun of.
    
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    kkj@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Care to explain your reasoning, then? Or did you just want to feel smug?
    
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akunohana@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Your whole comment was great but this part in particular cleared up things really well for me:

The only time that the current in the outlet while the transformer is connected would matter is if you were in series with the transformer.

While it’s obvious now that you mention it, I totally overlooked the fact that when people get shocked, they don’t come in contact with the circuit in a serial manner/configuration. This is probably why I calculated the values so overly simplistically, I think. Anyway, thanks! 😊

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- kkj@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I was a little worried that that part would distract from the overall message, so I’m glad I ended up leaving it in and I appreciate you telling me that it helped.
  
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