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3 answers

Your question does not have a simple answer.
As noted, it's not the voltage that kills you, but the current.
The current depends on the voltage supply, the internal impedance of the sourec, and the effective resistance of your body.
The latter depends on whether the current is applied to dry unbroken skin (maximum resistance) or enters into the highly conductive fleshy tissues. Your soft tissues and blood are essentially salt water, so they are highly conductive.

A major risk from electric shock is death due to cardiac or pulmonary arrest. Therefore, it is important whether the current path traverses the chest cavity or is confined to the extremities. You can survive enough current to cause burns on the arms or legs, but just a few milliamps through the chest cavity can kill you, even though it is nowhere near enough to cause any kind of burn. And even through the chest cavity, the timing of the current has a major impact. Pacemkers and cardiac defibrillators, after all, are designed to stimulate the heart with current impulses - quite large ones in the case of a defibrillator. But even a few milliamps of DC can cause cardiac arrest and/or pulmonary arrest. If breathing and the cardiac rhythm do not resume, death ensues soon after.

I, and many others, can state from personal experience that shocks from 120V AC house current are painful but survivable. However I can also point out that this experience is highly risky. People are electrocuted every year.

Product safety rules generally become much stricter when the voltage exceeds 60V, but that does not mean that lower voltages cannot be hazardous.

Do not try to administer a shock to yourself or others. It is seriously risky and can easily have deadly consequences. If you survive an accidental shock, well, kudos to you and buy a lottery ticket, because you are one of the lucky ones.

2006-12-02 07:00:48 · answer #1 · answered by AnswerMan 4 · 0 0

The amount depends not only of the voltage but also on the intensity of the current in amperes. It depends also of the health of the person.

in mean I would say that 50 V answers your question

2006-12-02 05:14:55 · answer #2 · answered by maussy 7 · 0 0

It's not the voltage that causes harm it's the flow of current and that can be a low as a few milli amps. You can be charged to any voltage level and survive as long as there is no large current flow.
people have died testing 9v batteries on their tongues.....so be careful.

2006-12-02 05:22:02 · answer #3 · answered by Daniel H 5 · 0 0

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