Skybuck Flying said:
Metal/Iron conducts electricity... so that doesn't sound so good
On the other hand it's hard material... tasers seem to work with needles
that need to penetrate something first.
However maybe very hard plastics that don't (or hardly) conduct any
eletricity would be a better/safer bet
In case tasers get some kind of sticky plugs or so
However then again 40.000 to 60.000 volts seem quite a lot...
Maybe under such circumstances even plastics becomes conductive ?
I did not realize that the taser fires two pointed electrodes and
administers a special waveform designed to cause involuntary muscle
contractions that effectively immobilize an assailant. I found this
reference from the Wiki:
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/dec07/5731
It seems that highly conductive clothing might render the device less
effective by essentially shorting the output, which must be current limited
to something like 20 to 100 mA. I can't imagine it being able to supply
more than about 100 watts, which would be only 2 mA at 50kV. Perhaps it
uses a series of high power, short duration bursts. But if conductive
clothing would have a resistance of perhaps 100 ohms between any two likely
points of entry of the darts, then it would take one amp to get 100 volts.
However, if the darts have only a small exposed conductive tip, and good
insulation that also penetrates the skin, conductive clothing would not
help. But I doubt the darts would penetrate even 20 gauge steel, and if
your armor is grounded then you would be protected in case one dart sticks
to it and the other lands on the ground.
Maybe some means of automatically sensing the location of the insertion,
and then having a robotically controlled wire cutter deployed to sever the
wires, might be the way to go.
Another deterent to anyone attempting to use a taser might be to wear a
vest of explosives and electrically controlled detonators. You would be
blown up, but it would also take out whoever tased you, and his buddies.
Paul
