Question about shock

[agent420]

Ahh, the old voltage/current murder_death_kill thread... Yup, it's been about a week since I last saw one

To be honest, this one actually has good technical content and the original questions are worded as legitimate questions. I think I like it here

Oh well, it was bound to happen

 

[Hero999]

do believe that a D cell will kill you. it will actualy kill because the cell can provide 2 amps into a short circuit. now people are going to argue but there is no voltage? ha but there is current and that kills not voltage.

Yes, you're wrong because the resistance of your body is so high that 1.5V won't cause a lethal current to flow through you.

now before anybody jump in and say it is wrong the idea is to get to the blood supply and heart. break the skin the barrier is gone with sodium in the blood you can and some did die of this same consequence.

I don't think so, you're talking to someone here who has had their skin pierced by a battery holder's terminals with a 9V battery and it didn't hurt that much.

put a tonque to the battery to see if it is good. I got zapped by a hi volts TV many times but the 22megohms in series saved ME. Same discussion as before put 16kv ac distribution supply and and you are floating 20 feet in the air insualted and you put your index finger and thumb as a short you will cook your fingers but you will survive. not many people know this but a fallen power line on the ground is not safe to move after it seems dead power co. will try to clear the fault three times before giving up that is standard procedures.

Please break this up into separate sentences, I can't be bothered to decode your rambling nonsense.

 

[dknguyen]

The person (voltage) is what pulls the trigger on the gun to fire the bullet (current). We usually blame the person. So should we blame the voltage when it's the current that does the killing? Just what, might I ask at fault?!! *head explodes*

 

[Hero999]

Tha answer is both, without a high enough voltage not enough current can flow to kill you, or if the current is limited by the internal impedance then it can't kill you.

 

[raybo]

9 volts stunt gun works because the voltage is raised to 50kv or so and the connection is penetration of the skin to blood supply. a carpet on a dry day can produce 5kv of static enough to penetrate the skin resistance and give you a shock fortunatelly there is limited current so it just get your attention or get you mad at least. which brings it down to my premise voltage does not kill current will. of course there must be the volts enough to provide the current 100kv will not kill you if it is current limited.

 

[HarveyH42]

How come most people struck by lightning actually survive (atleast for a while)? Some are relatively unharmed, others are slightly messed up (not sure if they were basically normal to begin with...).

 

[dknguyen]

Water

From my understanding, they tend to be wet and the lightning travels along the water on the surface of their bodies instead of travelling through it.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

How come most people struck by lightning actually survive (atleast for a while)? Some are relatively unharmed, others are slightly messed up (not sure if they were basically normal to begin with...).

I don't know about 'most', but some certainly survive - and (if I recall correctly?) the world record is held by an American (had to be!) a park ranger called Roy Sullivan, who was struck 7 times (now THAT'S careless!).

I suspect people survive because it's a fairly short burst?, and it probably doesn't travel through fatal areas?.

It's not really something you can test easily

 

[Dr.EM]

I've heard about that park ranger, and if it were me, I would have quit the job long before 7 strikes!

Something curious though, within the last few months there was a breif report on the UK news of how a kid had been killed by a lightning strike whilst camping in his back garden. Aside from why he stayed in the tend during the storm, I found it wierd how the adjacent house didn't take the bolt? It had a TV antenna too.

 

[dknguyen]

House

That's horrible. He was probably too far from the house and the house wasn't tall enough to compensate. Did it strike him or his tent? Maybe he was beside a tree? Or his tent/him was the tallest thing in the middle of his backyard?

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

It's not true that it hits the highest point, I have seen many examples of it hitting lower points with higher points all around.

One example was a local garage (owned by the same family as the TV Shop I work for), although surrounded an all sides by taller houses, with aerials, and being a few hundred feet down from the top of a hill, with taller houses all the way up - the garage was struck!. It blew the plaster off the walls for a yard each side of every wire in the place!.

 

[ADELRESTA]

No it wount ,1AMP is far too little to electrocute you!

 

[mramos1]

Our house was hit a couple times (Florida, it is paradise MOST of the time, then storms and hurricanes come).

One big hit, struck the sat dish, took out all coax items in the house (at the time ethernet was coax). 5 computers and 4 sat receivers. I went on the roof and could see where it bounced off the dish at hit the copper flashing on the roof (melted it)..

A couple months later, a tree man was out to take out 5 trees for my RV to park in the back yard and said "you want those 3 dead ones taken out too". Sure enough, it hit and bounced off three 40 foot pine trees before it hit the dish and roof. So in my case it was a high strick, but it did not stop at the first grounded object. As well, the sat dish was NOT grounded. Might have saved the receivers, but hard to say...

 

[Hero999]

No it wount ,1AMP is far too little to electrocute you!

Incorrect, 1A would kill you for sure.

 

[raybo]

People just don't want to understand that is the current that kills not the voltage. As an example a "D" cell has only 1.25 v but can deliver 2 amps into a short circuit meaning 0 volts is 2 amp good enough to kill YES more then enough. Electric chairs have more capability because like the shaven legs shaven cranius why? must breakdown the dry skin resistance after that, current flow. And probably not larger the 2 amps. Remove the skin resistance by a open wound a "D" cell will kil. Now we cannot cut the skin of a comdemn man that is why the hi voltage is required to breakdown the intial resistance of the skin after that you just cook. This post will be promty deleted as garbage by non believers.

 

[dknguyen]

No it wount ,1AMP is far too little to electrocute you!

You don't really think that electrical signals in the human body are anywhere near even half an amp do you? let alone be strong enough to make 1A of electrocution current neglible and have no effect.

 

[raybo]

The brain activity is in the microamps not amps. I think an EKG is in order here. And a 5kv shock from a carpet will not kill. Why no current available just voltage.Same thing from TV hi volts it has a 22megaohm resistor in series touch it and the I will drop across the resistor and the remainder will get your attention. NASA lost apollo 13 they think because some body stressed a component. At the time even a resistor had to be carried in a protective envelope to safe guard the component. Fail to do so adios you are fired immidiatelly NO revamp allowed.

 

[Hero999]

I'm sick of hearIng this rubbish.

A D CELL CAN NOT KILL YOU BECAUSE THE RESISTANCE OF YOUR BODY IS FAR TOO HIGH TO ALLOW A LETHAL CURRENT TO FLOW, EVEN IF YOU REMOVE YOUR SKIN THE RESISTANCE OF YOUR BLOOD IS STILL FAR TOO HIGH.

I've even played around with a 9V battery in a holder and the terminals has pierced my kin and the shock wasn't that bad, it did hurt but it certainly didn't kill me.

EDIT:
I've done some research and I've read about someone who was killed by a 9V battery because he broke his skin with the electrodes and even though I don't believe it they said the internal resistance of the human body is only 100 ohms, so a 1.2V cell will only cause a maximum current of 12mA which is still far too low to kill you.

 

[Don Hawley]

O.K I went and found this and figured I see how long it took me to type it out for you all to read I may be here a while.THE FOUR FACTORS OF ELECTRICUTION. 1 amount of current 2 currents path through body 3 amount of exposier 4 frequency of circuit. Effects of electricity in human body.-1ma;generally not perceptible. 1ma;faint tingle 5ma slight shock,not painful but disturbing.the average person can let go.strong involuntary reaction can lead to other injuries.like falling from ladder.6-25ma in womanainful shock,loss of muscle control.9-30ma in men The freezing current or "let go" range person cannot let go but can be thrown away from current if extensor muscles are stimulated. 50-150ma;extreme pain,respitory arrest,severe muscle contractions,death possible.1000-4300ma(1-1.4A) rythmic pumping of heart ceases. muscle contraction and nerve damage occurs. DEATH LIKELY 10,000ma(10A); cardiac arrest, severe burns, DEATH PROBABLE

 

[Don Hawley]

hEY i DON'T KNOW WHERE THAT FACE CAME INTO PLAY AT SO PRETEND IT IS A P. I also wondered if that warden gets real nervous before storms?