Need help with an electrocution scenario...

I've seen enough things like this in movies to believe it. Timecop has a scene where the bad guy is standing in water and electrocutes himself. Frequency has a scene where Dennis Quaid does the same thing to a bad guy with a coffee puddle and bare wires.

As far as burn marks, there would be some on the feet, but whether they'd still be visible weeks later I don't know.

It's not believable. Not to me anyhow. 110 volt household electricity needs to go straight through the chest to kill. The worst that could possibly happen in your scenario is he'd have burned feet but even that is unlikely. Think of it like this, electricity wants to find the route of least resistance to the ground. Travelling UP a person's body to their heart from their feet would only happen if he were leaning against a metal pole buried deep in the ground or the like. Perhaps if he had an electric blanket or heating pad with faulty wiring I would buy in. With a short in the blanket around his chest and current in the water on the floor you might get enough of a jolt to kill someone with heart problems.

I was an electronics tech in the army and I've been electrocuted arm to arm with over 500 volts DC once, 240 volts AC four or five times and 110 AC a few times.

Barely believable, unfortunately. Heaters that fall over usually start fires, but falling into water would cause a fault through the heater's case first. Breaker would likely trip. Along with noise and sparks that probably also would awaken a sleeping person, unless drunk. For fatal electrocution to occur some part of the sleeper's body would have to be well-grounded so that sufficient current passes through his heart, as Drachen says. Now, if your subject was watching TV in the bathroom and had a good grip on the plumbing, maybe he'd get a lethal dose.

Overall, burns caused by electrocution would surely last a week or more (can cause a lifetime of scarring in survivors) --the current can burn holes through skin, if certain conditions are met.

You could more easily kill off your sleeper by having the heater start a small fire that put out enough smoke to render sleeper unconscious.

Hey Stuckie,

It's highly unlikely, but not impossible. Improbable, yes. But most people don't understand electricity.

Until you give them the bill for keeping the buggers safe!

Regards

Whacko the sparky.

First off, what Drachen said.

But, since you're writing comedy and aren't really concerned about it, then go for it. As Whacko pointed out, most people don't understand electricity.

By way of compromise, I might have the initial jolt throw the chair backwards and have him land in the larger puddle (or something), which calls more attention to how unusual an event it is.

As for the body, it could if he was well preserved. A well sealed house with the right conditions inside can cause a corpse to functionally mummify.

But really, my biggest question is about the burn marks. Would a 2-3 week old corpse show burn marks??

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Considering that there's water all over the apartment floor, I'm going to guess that after 2-3 weeks at room temperature this is going to be one messy corpse. I don't even want to think about the smell.

Ignoring the electrocution method and fire risks and safety devices issue, electrocution produces an entry and exit wound frequently, marked by burning. But nearly as always, there are no burn marks. Either is consistent. Electrocution can be hard to determine cause of death, as sometimes there are no burns anywhere in the body, and the heart merely stops. So you can go with whichever the plot needs.

Realize after three weeks, the body is probably going to be bloated, and sitting in water, moldy. Significant bloat can hide a lot of trauma causes of death until you get to the actual autopsy. At the scene, while holding nose (and it doesn't work), you'd be more likely to take pictures and stuff in bag. Then stuff in another bag.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

stuckupmyownera said:

Isn't it just the same as the old dropping-the-hairdryer-in-the-bath chestnut? It can't seriously be safe to sit with your feet in water next to an electric heater that's also standing in water, can it??

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If you are in the bathtub, and electricity enters the water from above, it will travel towards ground, that is, the drain. You are between the drain and the electricity, and a better conductor than non salty water, so the current goes through you.

If you are sitting with your feet in water and the dryer falls over, the scenario is totally different. the current would have to travel from the turned over appliance, through the puddle to some ground, like a metal pole, grounded cable etc, in such a way that its path would go up one leg and down the other before completing the circuit. this would be a very strange puddle.

Maybe if you had him awaken from the noice and reach for a lightswitch. I do not know if it would kill, but it could give a nasty chock, and hey, he could always have a heart condition.

I don't know the details, but an acquaintance's brother was electrocuted and died when he went to shop-vac his parent's flooded basement. I think it was only a couple inches of water - I THINK that a portable "trouble light" fell in the water, but I'm not positive on that.

Hi stuckie,
I still think that water will have to lap around your character's ankles, which would probably wake him up...

But - here's a tragic case of the heater in a bath from yesterday.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...trocuted-bath-Romford-home.html#ixzz1B8QLB9db