Re:Why is electricity so hard to understand? (1989)
by alisonkisk on Saturday March 06, 2021 @09:11AM
(#26367451)
A car battery can hurt you by generating a lot of resistive heat that burns your skin.
It won't kill you quickly, though.
Re:Why is electricity so hard to understand? (1989)
by globular-toast on Saturday March 06, 2021 @10:11AM
(#26367872)
Just by holding the terminals with dry hands? No current will flow through you will it?
Re:Why is electricity so hard to understand? (1989)
by amanaplanacanal on Saturday March 06, 2021 @10:44AM
(#26368145)
More like by grabbing something metal and using it to bridge across the two terminals. It will get very hot very quickly.
Re:Why is electricity so hard to understand? (1989)
by fuzzfactor on Saturday March 06, 2021 @12:56PM
(#26369168)
Wear your safety glasses and other PPE before vaporizing metal coathangers this way.
Re:Why is electricity so hard to understand? (1989)
by globular-toast on Saturday March 06, 2021 @11:25AM
(#26368430)
Right, so you can add that as a third way electricity can harm you.
Re:Why is electricity so hard to understand? (1989)
by fuzzfactor on Saturday March 06, 2021 @12:55PM
(#26369156)
Not nearly as much as in a marine environment with wet salty hands.
In all cases, what hurts you is current. Current means electrons are flowing through you. As mentioned there are at least a couple of ways that current can affect you adversely. So it needs to be either a large enough current (so more electrons flowing), or a current going in the wrong place (across the heart).
So what makes current flow? Or, why do the electrons "want" to move? Voltage. A car battery has plenty of energy in it that could kill you in either of the two ways, but at 12V there's not enough voltage to get any current flowing through your body.
Voltage is the existence of an imbalance. Electrons "want" to be in a place where they are balanced with a positive charge. A battery represents a structure that is very imbalanced but the electrons are not able to move anywhere until the two ends of the battery are connected with a conductor. There are many ways that these imbalances arise but they are ultimately always the result of energy going in. When the imbalance is resolved the energy comes back out.
To hurt you a voltage also needs to be sustained long enough to pass enough current. A static shock is due to a very high voltage existing which it causes current to flow and why you can feel it, unlike the car battery. However, in an instant all the current has flowed and the voltage is gone.
So the answer is a high enough voltage and enough energy to sustain that voltage. Mains electricity can hurt you because it's high voltage (>50V) and can sustain that voltage all day long. Lightning can hurt you because it's very high voltage and can sustain it long enough (and that's only an instant) to cause serious injury.