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/sci/ - Science & Math

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2448494 No.2448494 [Reply] [Original]

Ok, I come to your for a little rant, but also some help.

I just pulled my blanket from my bed, as to cover myself. Seeing as my covers are made of nylon, this usually builds up a considerable electrostatic charge. I often manage to shock myself or my cat, but this time something different happened. I shocked my mouse (computer mouse) and...it broke it. I actually managed to shock my PLASTIC mouse into oblivion. Now, I would ask if I was dreaming, but I pinched myself and this is real. How much of an electric charge would I need to fry my mouse? (just fyi, it was very cold and my hands are sweaty so this couldn't have been a way for electricity to get inside the mouse)

>> No.2448512

Obligatory: Pics or it didn't happen.

>> No.2448517
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2448517

Several of the components within your mouse are going to be electrostatic sensitive. The Chinese children who assemble them all wear grounding wrist straps. It should take a fairly large charge to pass through the air gap and plastic; but I'm too lazy to calculate it all out and don 't have enough information to do more than a rough guess anyway.

>> No.2448526

Oh damn, I should be more careful next time. Or at least shock myself in the face before touching anything. Well, thanks anyway.

>> No.2448577

You can build up over 10,000 voltage charge just by walking on carpet. The discharge will hurt you but it will not kill you since the amps would be lose to nothing. Non the less this voltage can break an electrical component. Something as low as 1v can break a a piece of equipment. It could of also had a preappled charge as it look like you do this offen, This charge could of set the mouse off the edge.

>> No.2448660

Plastic isn't very conductive, but then neither is your skin and it'll conduct a shock anyway if the voltage is high enough.

Static shocks you can feel are in the neighborhood of 20,000 volts. The duration and current are too small to harm you, but that's several orders of magnitude more than is necessary to damage microelectronics.