Staying safe with electricity
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The idea
Electricity is useful but can be dangerous. The battery in your torch is harmless. The current from a socket, on the other hand, can injure you fatally. If you know the rules, you stay safe.
What to remember
- Fuse
A fuse breaks the circuit automatically when too much current flows, for example in a short circuit. This protects against fires.
You should know these rules:
- Never put objects into a socket, not even needles or forks.
- Never touch electrical devices with wet hands, and do not use them in the bathtub.
- Pull on the plug, not on the cable, and do not use devices with a damaged cable.
- Never experiment with current from the socket. For experiments use batteries only.
- In a thunderstorm stay indoors or in a car. In an open field and under lone trees you are in danger.
Battery and socket
A flat battery has 4.5 volts and is harmless to you. The socket supplies 230 volts. That is far too much for your body.
Example
A hairdryer falls into the bathtub
Water conducts electricity, and so does your body. That is why no electrical device may come near bath water. Never bathe with a device plugged in, and do not put devices on the edge of the tub.
Practice
Exercise
Solution
Making a small bulb shine with a torch battery. right answer
A small battery has only a few volts and is harmless to you.
Pulling the plug by the plug, not by the cable. right answer
The cable can be damaged when you pull it. Pulling on the plug is right.
Poking a fork into the socket.
The socket has 230 volts. That can injure you fatally.
Touching a hairdryer with wet hands.
Wet skin conducts electricity well. That makes an electric shock very dangerous.
Batteries with a few volts are harmless. For the socket with 230 volts strict rules apply.
More on it:
Exercise
Solution
I go into a building or into a car. right answer
In buildings and cars you are well protected from lightning.
I stand under a single big tree.
Lone tall trees are often struck by lightning. That is dangerous.
I stay in the middle of the meadow and stand upright.
In an open field you are the highest point, and lightning can strike you.
In a thunderstorm you look for a safe place such as a building or a car and avoid open areas and lone trees.
More on it:
Exercise
Solution
Right answer: The statement is true.
The fuse switches off in an overload or a short circuit. This stops cables from getting too hot.
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