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Old December 26th, 2006, 04:50 PM

rdouglass rdouglass is offline
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Default Re: capnq is in trouble, and may need our help

People don't realize that just walking across a carpet on a dry winter day, you can build up several thousand volts easily. Even the tiniest of sparks (from your hand to the doorknob perhaps) carry at least 500 volts. A spark travelling across a 0.5 mm gap requires 2850 volts. (Yes, that's 1/2 millimeter.)

Static electricity *can definitely* damage electrical components regardless of whether they are 'live' or not.
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