So today my car battery died, couldn’t even be revived with a jump. I was able to walk to an auto store to get tools and a new battery (damn that mfer was heavier than I expected). I had never had to replace my own car battery before.
I screwed the fastener nuts the wrong way for like 5 minutes, cut my hand, and ultimately accidentally crossed the positive and negative terminals with a wrench that exploded in sparks. I don’t even know what stopped me from being electrocuted but I didn’t feel a thing.
While I’m happy I was able to take care of it myself and will be able to in the future, I also feel like such a dunce for not knowing wtf I was doing and almost shocking myself
A car battery doesn’t have enough voltage to even tickle you* so you wouldn’t even know if you zapped yourself. (*assuming you are touching it with y’know your skin and not your tongue or something even sillier)
Buuuuut if you touched any bare metal bits of the car while touching the positive terminal, for example when fastening the bolt on the positive terminal with an uninsulated tool, then you did just zap yourself for however little that matters with a 12v battery. ;)
Oh wow, I didn’t realize that was how little it was. I think the kitchen outlet I shocked myself with was like 200v and that gave me a jump and some tingling. I had no idea car batteries were so little voltage.
The flavor of current also plays a big role too. Car batteries are Direct Current, whereas your 200v outlet was likely Alternating Current. Essentially, even 200v of DC wouldn’t have been as “painful” as the AC you experienced although I’m not playing with either. Part of the danger is the way the alternating current has a tendency to contract your muscles, keeping you in contact with whatever the source is. DC tends just spark, bang, shove you away.