this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2023
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Here's the thing with electricity: it's invisible.
If you're using a power saw, you can see the blade. You can see other cars (obviously there's blind spots). You can see a burning flame on your stove, or maybe hear/smell the gas.
You may have a box and know that there's electricity inside, but you have no idea if it's wired correctly. You have no idea if the breaker is shut, or if there's batteries inside. We've engineered a lot of controls to keep things safe like LEDs to show it's on and ground wires on all the metal bits (thank you underwriter laboratories). But all of those can fail and you can still get shocked because electricity is essentially invisible and requires tools (multimeter) to inform you that it's dead.
None of your senses will let you know if something with electricity is safe. It's a gamble every single time you touch something electrical. You can be seriously hurt with voltages as low as 30v, assuming worst case conditions like you just finished swimming in the ocean.
Using electrical equipment is like walking through a construction site blindfolded while someone yells directions at you from afar.