Bumper Car Voltage

Not the brightest crayon in the box, eh JK? ;) ;)

Seriously though, it's not really the volts that kill you, it's the amps (at least that's what they told me after I made contact with a transformer inside a video game cabinet :) )

Besides, 90vac is less than what's plugged into your computer right now. Shocking, isn't it? (rimshot)

Thanks!- I'm here all week...
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My K'Nex Coasters
Coming to Wyandot Lake in 2003: Hi-Striker's Revenge
*** This post was edited by jimmybob 2/13/2003 10:35:05 PM ***

Volts don't kill, anyone that's been had by a 150,000 volt tazer can attest to that. The reason bumper cars have been toned down in larger parks is more than likely the liability factor. With the way people are sueing at the drop of a hat now a days, the last thing a park needs is a whiplash lawsuit.

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- GeaugaDog
Ain't Nuthin but the Dog in me..

I worked the Bumper Cars at Coney Island many times. On Coney`s the control panel actually contained a meter with how much voltage was being used by the ride. Unfortunatly, I don`t remember what the average reading was on it though. I do know that Coney`s was set to run on setting 2 of five. Coney`s bumper cars have five settings. However, you can`t adjust the setting from the control panel. One of the maintenance workers said that he has run the ride on setting five, (when the cars were flying) although the park wasn`t open then, and by over riding the control panel which shuts the ride off if any setting besides two is selected. I`ll be returning to Coney Island this season for my second season, and I`ll try and remember to check what the voltage is on their bumper cars.
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Coney Island (Cincinnati) ride operator

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GregLeg said:

I wonder if it'd be possible to leave a car stranded by positioning it so that it's straddling only hot strips (or only ground strips) :)

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I believe on some it is, like at Septemberfest (Schaumburg, IL), if you're stuck you turn your wheel all the way to the right, left, and then you can go. Of corse, it's like a port-a-potty (portable crap).
*** This post was edited by swimmerkev 2/14/2003 7:00:23 PM ***

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GeaugaDog said:
Volts don't kill, anyone that's been had by a 150,000 volt tazer can attest to that.

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Thats true, its Amps that get you, although I dont know about a 150,000 volt tazer. Its not the volts its the current (Amps). It takes approximstly 200 milli-Amps to cause fatal fibrilation.

Anyways iv you were to get shocked by a 90 V bumber car ride, with the average resistance of a human body, that may produce about 9 milli-Amps, just enough to feel slight pain.
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So you believe that you are studying us, then kindly explain why you are the ones trapped in your seats.

True, it's the amps not the volts that kills you; but more volts makes it more likely that you will get enough amps. The high voltage low amps such as a car ignition it due to high internal resistance in the system. This is called a low fault current.

Actually, it also has to do with where the current is flowing and how well grounded you are. I've put 600 volts from tube electronics with some reasonable amperage across my thumb and it smarted like crazy and throbed for about an hour, but did no real damage. If it was connected hand to hand it might have killed me though.

Be very careful though if you get around industrial electricity. 480 volt 3-Phase systems often have fault currents in the thousnds or even tens of thousands of amps. That kind of power just blows off the offending part of your body if you get across it. Even being close to the arc when a fault occurs can result in serious radiation burns from the ultraviolet light.

SFMM's is 48 volt DC current.