Friendly Tech Reminder: Don't let kids suck your USB cords.

[Da6s]

http://gizmodo.com/5443231/toddler-sucks-on-a-usb-cable-ends-up-in-the-hospital

Here's a sad reminder that USB cables belong plugged into peripherals, not children. Toddler Trinity Anderson was playing with a USB cable plugged into a laptop and put it in her mouth, which shocked her and knocked her out.

[Elder Iptuous]

How did she get 3rd degree burns on her tongue?
to power line in a USB connection is only 5VDC...

[The Johnny]

Wow, i should carry around a laptop with a usb cable, and tase peoples mouths with it.

[Jasper]

Poor kid.

Hey, I bet you could make a USB powered mini taser.

[Captain Utopia]

How did she get 3rd degree burns on her tongue?
to power line in a USB connection is only 5VDC...

Current is more significant than voltage, but this surprised me too. Sounds like she chomped down on the cable - is it possible to stimulate the jaw muscle from inside the mouth?

[cavehamster]

Well... it could be possible.  Let's say that this USB cable was connected to a wall charger for a cell phone, and the amperage could exceed 1A.  Plus, the kid was sucking on the thing, so you have a fairly low resistance coupling...  It only takes a few mA to stop your heart, anyway.

Typically, though, your skin has enough resistance that anything up to about 30V or so just doesn't bother you.

[Elder Iptuous]

USB ports can provide up to 500mA of current (2.5 watts of power) from what i've read.
true that's enough to stop a heart, so i would avoid sticking it in your chest cavity.

[Captain Utopia]

When I was a kid, my Spectrum 128K+2 had a faulty power supply. Well, faulty after I chopped it in half to perform electrolysis experiments with household chemicals then put it back together with tape which kept coming loose and shorting. But anyway, I'd frequently just pop it against the tip of my tongue to see if it was delivering power.

If you do it for only a fraction of a second it isn't pleasant, although not really painful. The saliva seemed to be crucial to act as a conductor. If I had put it further into my mouth, or stimulated the tongue muscles, I can imagine a similar scenario where the cord gets stuck in the mouth for longer than a fraction of a second though.

[cavehamster]

I do the same thing to test 9V batteries.  Touch it to your tongue, and depending on how good it is, you get a stronger shock out of it.

[Triple Zero]

I do the same thing with people's ears to see if they're listening.

[cavehamster]

I do the same thing with people's ears to see if they're listening.

How well does that work?

[Triple Zero]

Well, depending on how good it is, you get a stronger shock out of it.

[Freeky]

Well, depending on how good it is, you get a stronger shock out of it.