why do people get a shock if they touch electricity?

Answer 1

.......because electricity looks for the closest path to the earth........and you standing on the ground, combined with the fact that humans conduct electricity - means that you're its route to the earth!

Answer 2

There are two main reasons why you get a shock. The first is that the electric current causes the muscles to contract violently, which causes pain similar to being hit on the muscle. The second reason is that the current causes heating, which burns the skin and can burn internal organs.

Shock is mostly likely to be fatal if it passes across the chest, thereby causing the heart muscle to contract and to stop pumping blood.

People have managed to catch one foot on the live rail of an electric railway in such a way that the current burns the foot, but does not pass through the heart. This doesn't kill them, but sometimes the foot is so badly burnt that they lose it.

It only takes a very small current through the heart to cause death, by stopping the regular heartbeat.

You can touch a high-voltage bus-bar (electric conductor) safely with one hand if both feet are on an insulating rubber mat. Electrical engineers might do this to check if the bus-bar is overheating. But they always keep the other hand in the pocket to make sure there is no possibility of touching another surface thus giving a circuit through their bodies.

There used to be controversy as to whether AC or DC was more dangerous and at one time Edison (who used DC power) tried to make out that AC was more dangerous. He even tried to get execution by electric chair called being 'Westinghoused' after the name of his rival Westinghouse who used AC power. If you have ever seen a film of someone being executed by electric chair, you would realise how appalling it is.

Answer 3

You can only get a shock if the power is great enough. The power (wattage) is the product of multiplying the electromotive force (voltage) by the rate of flow (amperage) and thus a battery with a very small emf and low milli-amp hourage rating won't give you a shock, though if you put one on your tongue it'll tingle. A current seeks out the least path of resistance to earth and your body is a very good conductor and will take a flow of hundreds of amps and so if you are in contact with the earth or you are standing on or touching a conductor that is, you'll get a shock. if you're wearing rubber soled boots and not touching another conductor you won't unless it's an extremely high voltage. You can actually sit on a live power line and as long as you are not near or touching the pylon or trailing a string or other conductor to earth you won't get a shock. Electricity at 30,000 volts can jump an arc of about a centimetre in dry air but in wet it takes much less and that's why you're told not to fly a kite near power lines.

Answer 4

I think you mean to ask why we feel hat happens when we are in contact with more than one conductor of an electrical circuit.

Our nervous system operates on very small electrical currents that originate in our body. Electrical impulses from our brain tell our fingers what to do when we want to pick up something. Other electrical impulses tell our eyes to blink.

When one closes an electrical circuit and the voltages and resistances are appropriate, electrical current passes through our bodies. The nerves react. Some tell our brain in a manner that makes feel the tingle. Others tell the muscles to contract, pulling us away from the circuit.

The feeling one responder gets when touching the door of a store occurs a bit differently. The person has built up an electrical (static) charge because of his movement. The door handle has a different electrical charge. Contact between the bodies with these charges causes current to flow. The result is the same, except the current flow is low and of short duration.

Answer 5

you dont always get a shock when you come into contact with electricity. Electricities sole purpose in life is to get to ground and it will always take the quickest possible route to achieve that. For example: if you are wearing a big thick pair of rubber soled boots or standing on a rubber mat and you touch a live cable, nothing will happen. however, if you break a circuit and then touch both ends of the cable you then beome part of the circuit and thus you will get a shock irrespective of what you are wearing. if you are wearing nothing on your feet and you touch a cable, you will get a shock as you will become it's quickest route to earth

Answer 6

well not every one gets a shock. If the conditions are wrong (or right) you will.#
Did you hear about the bus conductor who kept kicking people off his bus and was evenually brought to court. He was given death by electric chair.
They tried three times to kill him each time increasing the voltage. in the end he admitted that he was just a bad conductor!!!

Kind regards, D

Answer 7

The electric current flows from the wire and into your body. It couses through you and back into the wire.

Geez, didn't you listen when you were in physics?

Although noone really does do they?

Anyway.....

Answer 8

because humans are conductors, meaning electricity can pass through a person to get to the ground.

Answer 9

OUCH!, why does lightening kill? For the pure and simple reason that it is alien to our bodies and upsets all the rythms of our brain and organs. Anyway why touch it if you know it hurts.

Answer 10

i get a shock evrytime i go into woolworths! static from me and the highly polished floor. Wouldnt mind but it bloody hurts!