If you were to electricute yourself in a bathtub with a hairdryer, wouldnt there just be a short circuit?

Answer 1

Yes and no....

House current consists of one "hot" leg and one "neutral" leg. In most houses, the neutral is actually connected to "ground" which is also the third prong on the plugs you stick in the wall.

At the electrical box there is a wire that goes outside the house and is attached to a copper rod driven into the ground called incidentally a "grounding rod." The power company sends out current on the wires and actually the earth (or ground) is the return path for the power supply circuit.

Okay, I know this is way too much info but we are getting there. Since the plug on the hairdryer has one hot leg and a neutral leg (which is actually ground) water in the hair dryer would short out the hot leg to ground. Electricity always takes the path of least resistance. Okay, BUT if you have copper pipes to your tub, in most houses the pipes are "grounded" and the bath is filled with water (a good conductor) so the hot leg would short out through the water to the copper pipes at the same time.

Ah-ha! So you see, the hairdryer "shorts" to ground both through the plug and the water at the same time.

By the way, plugs in Bathrooms and Kitchens (near water sources) are required in many locations to have a special type of plug called a Ground Fault Interrupt (GFI) which will sense any current flowing between the hot and ground (bypassing the neutral) and will trip to prevent the hairdryer in the tub problem.

Sorry if this is too much info!



g-day!

Answer 2

this is a simple question but the answer requires some complex ideas. The electrical system in your house is designed to keep the current in its intended path, in other words your wires. When current flows outside its intended path that condition is called a fault. In the bath tub scenario you have two kinds of faults happening, a ground fault and a line to line fault. The ground fault is the current flowing from the hot lead of the hair dryer, thru the water and to the plumbing which returns to the panel thru the ground rod. The line to line fault occurs where the current bypasses the load of the dryer and flows straight to the neutral wire and back to the panel. A ground fault interrupter is effective against ground faults, but not line to line faults. the GFCI measures the difference in the current flowing out on the hot as opposed to the current flowing back on neutral. A difference of more than a few milliamps will cause the GFCI to int erupt the circuit and stop current flow. A line to line fault has equal current on the hot and the neutral and therefore will not trip a GFCI. In order for the circuit to trip the current flow in the circuit must exceed the trip rating of the breaker. The water in the tub offers some resistance to current flow and will generally not allow the current flow to get high enough to trip the breaker in the panel. The ground fault is the most dangerous to the person in this situation as the current may take a path thru the body there by causing electrocution on its way back to the panel. Be careful of these armchair electricians on this thread as most of them offer partially correct or complete BS as answers.

Answer 3

There will be an electrical charge, and with some appliances, the charge is strong enough to kill you. Mythbusters, on the Discovery Channel, once conducted (pardon the expression) an experiment to see what would happen. They placed a dummy made of ballistics gel, which simulates human tissue, in a tub full of water. They had attached sensors to him which would show when the shock would be enough to kill him. They tried several different appliances, and all of them produced a shock, some strong enough to kill. I'm not sure what the verdict was on a hairdryer, but even if it didn't kill you, I'm sure the results would not be pleasant.

Answer 4

NEVER EVER DRY YOUR HAIR IN THE BATH TUB!!!

Do not depend on ground fault receptacles either! Unless you test them regularly they may not work correctly. Most people never test them. All you need to do is press the "test" button in the center of the outlet. If it snaps off press the other button and reset the outlet. To be more sure of operation plug something in to the outlet so when you press the "test" button you know for sure it is stopping the flow of current. But again never bet your life when using electricity.

Electricity will kill you and more people are killed per year with 110 vac than higher voltages. People believe 110 vac isn't as dangerous.

Answer 5

i would not want to test it. but iny our bathroom you should have GFCI Receptacles. GFCI stands for Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter. in other words, if the receptacle senses any continuity in between the positive and the other two terminals, it shuts off the power at the switch.......so theoretically, you should be able to sit in the bathtub when a hairdryer is dropped in....

(dint try and tempt fate, and this is only if you have properly installed gfci receptacles.)

Answer 6

If you are electrocuted, then you are dead. There is a difference between electrocution and just getting shocked. Electrocution means death.

Most bathrooms these days have a GFCI receptacle. This would save your life, but not all homes have these.

My recommendation is do not ever blow dry your hair while sitting in the bath tub.

Answer 7

Hairdryers (and other bathroom applicances) now a days have a safty mechanism that if the unit is dropped into water it would turn off.

Answer 8

I have a breaker box and gfi outlet I do not dry my hair in the tub so I am not too worried

Answer 9

Your hand would be wet and this could give you a shock.keep water and electricity far apart.