Brain Teasers
Hair Raising Duffus
Duffus Mcklutski was not the most suave debonair guy. He was a cross between Grizzly Adams and the local garbage collector. So when the girl next door remarked that he was kind of cute in a bushman sanitation worker kind of way, but would look better with curly hair and a bath, Duffus wasted no time in arranging his makeover. Not sure how he would curl his hair he started with his yearly bath. But since it had been so long since last he bathed, he had no towels in the bathroom to dry himself off. So Duffus, in a pair of shorts dripping wet, wandered out to his tool shed to see if he could do anything about his straight hair dilemma. "Hmmm, weedwacker" he muttered as he turned on the 15000v neon transformers which power the neon lights in his shed. But not watching what he was doing, he touched an open end of the transformer and still being more than damp, he was zapped with 15000 volts of electricity. Duffus was unharmed however and achieved a slight curl to his hair.
But why was Duffus almost unaffected by the 15000v shock?
But why was Duffus almost unaffected by the 15000v shock?
Hint
It has to do with electrical properties and neon specifically.Answer
Neon transformers have very high voltage, but almost no amperage. In fact, they rated in milliamps or thousandths of an amp. Like a cattle prod, it gives a jolt but won't kill. Where as if the amperage were high and voltage lower as in some welding equipment, Duffus would most surely not have been so lucky. Neon sign installers are often zapped yet rarely injured. The other reason is that the frequency of the transformers is different from household power allowing the electricity to travel over the skin, especially wet skin, rather than through the body.Hide Hint Show Hint Hide Answer Show Answer
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