2006-07-24 08:09:04 · 10 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Engineering
VOLTS IS NOT WHAT KILLS. If you have ever received static shock from touching a door knob or rubbing your socks on nylon carpet then touching something metal you are experiencing a electric shock of close to or more then 16350 volts! now that's clearly more then what runs appliances in your home (~ 130 times more to be exact!). Now to answer you question! Voltage doesn't kill you it's current or better known as amperage, or amp. Amp is the amount of force behind the voltage. For a typical female, 50 miliamps (0.05 amps) for 2/10 of a second, and for a typical male, 75 miliamps (0.075 amps) for 1/2 of a second will send the heart into ventricular fibrillation. Think of it like this a .308 bullet weights in at about 147 grams if you where to throw it at some one the likeliness of it killing them is very minimal but shot from a gun at about 2000 feet/sec the likeliness is very likely!
2006-07-24 08:32:29 · answer #1 · answered by poloboy65 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
As stated by others it is the current that kills, not the voltage.
It turns out that as little as 200 milliamps can kill a person. That may sound low, but it can take considerable voltage to generate that current. The human body can exhibit many hundred thousand ohms of resistance. That number can go as low as a few hundred ohms for someone that is wet, or sweaty, or has open wounds, among other things. This means that even voltages as low as 50 volts can kill under the right circumstances, though it will usually be a much higher number.
So let's be careful out there!
2006-07-24 15:33:27 · answer #2 · answered by joe_ska 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
100 mA is the accepted norm for causing death. In the worst case scenerio the human body has a resistance of 300 ohms. Using Ohm's law :
I=V/R
algebraecially rearrranging to solve for voltage
V=IR
therefore V= .1A(300 Ohms) = 30 volts
However, the amperage and resistance can be changed by many variables, so as these change, the amount of voltage would change proportionally.
2006-07-24 20:53:55 · answer #3 · answered by NukinHawg 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's all about the amps as the above have said...
It take about 6 milliamps across the heart to cause fibrillation, and death without defib less than a minute or two later...
2006-07-24 15:17:43 · answer #4 · answered by AresIV 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
it does not so much depend on amount of volts but the ammount of amps and where they cross
i could get shocked in the leg with a couple hundred amps but if the amps dont cross my heart,brian/vital organs then it would just really really hurt
2006-07-24 15:15:19 · answer #5 · answered by first_gholam 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I have also heard that in alternating current AC it depends on the freqency. The 50-60Hz in an outlet is supposely a good freqency to stop the heart.
2006-07-24 18:32:23 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It mostly depends on the amps not the voltage. Low voltage with high amperage can kill, while high volts with no amps might not.
2006-07-24 15:12:53 · answer #7 · answered by EG345 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
no relation at all! low voltage with a wet body can still screw you. while a high voltage wont even care for wetness!
Dont Try This At Home!
2006-07-24 15:17:57 · answer #8 · answered by piyush 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Like everybody else so far has said... It's not the voltage, it's the current.
2006-07-24 16:15:05 · answer #9 · answered by frieburger 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
it aint the volts its the amps that kill ya
2006-07-24 15:13:10 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋