JoinScope on Safety: Sticker Shock--There’s a high price to pay for ignorance about Electricity
Lighting a fluorescent bulb by touching it to the nose of a student who has one hand on an electrostatic generator is an illuminating demonstration of the properties of voltage. It demonstrates that the several hundred thousand volts of electricity passing through the student’s body are not dangerous. However, students and teachers need to understand that the current running through a circuit does pose a real danger.