What would happen if my 10 month baby chewed the end of my magsafe charger?

[m85476585]

I measured the output of my Magsafe when it's not connected to my MBP: 6.7V. It should put out ~16V when plugged into the laptop.

That voltage is relatively safe, but if the baby chews on it and creates a short, the wiring could get very hot and it could cause a burn.

If you don't use the 3-prong grounded cord, there is some risk of high voltage building up on the charger, and it could be enough to be dangerous if the baby is a good path to ground (if he/she it touching grounded metal while chewing on the charger). I just measured 50 volts between a USB port (connected to the computer's floating "ground") and true ground while the charger was plugged into my computer and plugged into the wall with the 2-prong travel adapter. That's enough to be dangerous. If the Magsafe is working normally, the available floating ground to true ground current should be very low, but if there is something wrong with the Magsafe, it could become enough to give a potentially deadly shock. It only takes ~20mA through the heart to stop it (and probably less for a baby). The 3-prong cable connects the computer's ground to true ground, and any stray voltage is safely carried away, but it's still better not to take any chances and keep the Magsafe out of reach.

The charger could also be a choking hazard if the baby tries to swallow it, and the cord could strangle the baby.

In short, keep your Magsafe out of reach of your baby.

 

[tfstone]

Our baby did exactly that! The charger did not work after that, the baby was fortunately ok. Needless to say that we are more careful now (for the babys sake).

 

[MacModMachine]

wow...just wow....

you should have your kids taken from you if they have the chance to put a live cord in there mouth.

watch your kids and buy a play pen.

 

[tfstone]

wow...just wow....

you should have your kids taken from you if they have the chance to put a live cord in there mouth.

watch your kids and buy a play pen.

you obiously do not have kids, otherwise you would now that these kind things can happen really fast with a todler. you go out of the room, baby pulls the maglife plug, puts it in mouth. a takes literally 30 seconds to happen for **** like that. believe me we take very good care of our kids. so please dont be a wiseass...

 

[Gasu E.]

Honestly, I've licked mine and nothing happened.

If my cat could talk, he might say the same thing.

 

[MacModMachine]

you obiously do not have kids, otherwise you would now that these kind things can happen really fast with a todler. you go out of the room, baby pulls the maglife plug, puts it in mouth. a takes literally 30 seconds to happen for **** like that. believe me we take very good care of our kids. so please dont be a wiseass...

so you leave your kids unattended when you leave the room ?

i have a 12 month old son and i know one thing....i do not leave him in the room unattended.

but im not going to grill you on taking care of yours kids....do what you will.

 

[SnapperUK]

Thanks to everyone for their input...
This really was a hypothectical. I was kind of interested in what sort of load these things deliver and how potentially dangerous they are.
Anyone who tries to make any judgment on parenting for just asking this question is an idiot.

 

[MacModMachine]

good luck

 

[Barabas]

you obiously do not have kids, otherwise you would now that these kind things can happen really fast with a todler. you go out of the room, baby pulls the maglife plug, puts it in mouth. a takes literally 30 seconds to happen for **** like that. believe me we take very good care of our kids. so please dont be a wiseass...

Heh. Just googled this. My daughter has grabbed our MagSafe plenty of times. I grab if I'm in time to see it. But sometimes it's impossible.

 

[Deeya]

My dog chewed through the 80w adapter for my old Macbook Pro, and in a few spots the cord was only shredded.

When plugged in, the cord would spark and crackle when twisted and moved around. Seems dangerous enough to me.

 

[moel]

That's a life you have wandering around your apt... much more valuable than a $80 (or whatever it is) power cord.

Since when was sperm and an egg worth £60?

 

[R.R.Mac]

really your going to have this problem with all laptops but I think that apple is quite good on these sorts of things so I think you'll be fine

 

[JacaByte]

I think most likely nothing would happen; someone mentioned a charging circuit to prevent this sort of thing (or other charging irregularities that might potentially damage a $2000+ computer).

That being said, do you really want to risk it? That power adapter puts out 12V+ DC. If your baby managed to create a circuit, particularly through the mouth/tongue, that voltage could easily provide a few hundred mA, which would be very painful at least, potentially fatal.

Would you put jumper cables attached to a live car battery in your mouth? Didn't think so.

My Magsafe adaptor is rated for 16.5V to 18.5V at 4.6A. That's plenty enough to kill a grown adult if it's applied in the right place. (So it runs through the heart) Loss of muscle control occurs at around 2 mA, death can result from currents of anywhere between 6 mA and 60 mA. The Magsafe is capable of putting out 4600 mA.

I, for one, would not let pets or children near electrical cords or power supplies that have the potential to short if chewed through. This includes USB cables; the regulation USB cable is designed to run between 3.3V and 6.6V, ideally, and no more than 500 mA. However, it's possible for a USB connector to deliver more, especially now that you've got iPads drawing 2A for charging from USB ports.

I've also seen a USB pin grid on a motherboard short out, for whatever reason, and draw enough current to melt the plastic on the connectors involved in the short and adjacent connectors and blow it all over the inside of the case and the motherboard. Ruined the motherboard, needless to say. By my estimate 100A went into that, at least.

 

[Ramphex]

One thing I don't get, with having such good batteries, why do you need plugs all over the house and how lazy are you to just move one plug around where you go and need to charge your laptop?

 

[runebinder]

Since when was sperm and an egg worth £60?

Lol, judging from most sprogs round here the value is a Lambert and Butler cigarette and a bottle of Lambrini.

 

[m85476585]

My Magsafe adaptor is rated for 16.5V to 18.5V at 4.6A. That's plenty enough to kill a grown adult if it's applied in the right place. (So it runs through the heart) Loss of muscle control occurs at around 2 mA, death can result from currents of anywhere between 6 mA and 60 mA. The Magsafe is capable of putting out 4600 mA.

I, for one, would not let pets or children near electrical cords or power supplies that have the potential to short if chewed through. This includes USB cables; the regulation USB cable is designed to run between 3.3V and 6.6V, ideally, and no more than 500 mA. However, it's possible for a USB connector to deliver more, especially now that you've got iPads drawing 2A for charging from USB ports.

I've also seen a USB pin grid on a motherboard short out, for whatever reason, and draw enough current to melt the plastic on the connectors involved in the short and adjacent connectors and blow it all over the inside of the case and the motherboard. Ruined the motherboard, needless to say. By my estimate 100A went into that, at least.

A car battery can put out hundreds of amps @12V, but since the voltage is so low, you won't get hundreds of amps through your heart if you touch the terminals. The same with the MBP charger. It doesn't matter how much current the source is capable of, but the voltage it has to push current through your body.

Loss of muscle control occurs at about 50mA for DC and 10mA for AC according to a source I found (of course, that's probably assuming an adult). At 18V you can't reach that current unless the resistance of your body is less than 1800 ohms. This may be possible with wet skin, and is likely possible if a child were to put the cord in his/her mouth, but not with dry skin. But in the mouth there isn't a path through the heart. USB is even safer, and requires a resistance of less than 500 ohms to cause any problems, and resistance that low through the body is very difficult to achieve without a large contact area.

Computer power supplies typically have very good overcurrent protection. If it was a laptop, I would be surprised if you got more than 20A out of it. A desktop PSU may be able to put out 50A on the +5V rail, but only for a very short time. Very low resistance shorts, like good metal to metal contact, are usually detected very quickly and the PSU will shut down before anything is damaged. Weak metal-to-metal shorts might fall just under the current limit threshold, and you can get significant heating/melting before the PSU shuts off, which is probably what you experienced. I would guess as little as 10A could do what you described. I have a 500W desktop supply that can melt a hole straight through a penny in seconds without hitting the current limit using a piece of pencil lead as an electrode.