can high voltage with low amperage still kill you?

Question

i mean like 500 miliamps

Answer 1

I've always heard that people have been electrocuted with 1/2 and amp. 500 milliamps is 1/2 an amp. I believe it has to do with disrupting the electircal signals that control the heart beat. 1/2 an amp is a relative term- maybe its really only 400 or 300 milliamps so be careful anytime your around uncontrolled electricity. You dont want to be the one to find out 1/4 amp can also kill.

Answer 2

There seems to be a lot of confusion about voltage and current. 250 volts at 50 amps simply means that the circuit is capable of supplying that voltage and current. It doesn't mean that 50 amps will always be supplied. The actual current supplied will depend on the resistance object that the voltage is applied to.
So 250 volts at 50 amps is no more dangerous than 250 volts at 5 amps when applied to a person. Both can kill !
Actually just a few milli-amperes can be deadly. Very important considerations are how good a conductor you make yourself and the the path of the current through your body. Technicians who routinely work with high voltages take precautions that the path is not through the trunk of the body. Wet skin is very dangerous even when exposed to normal house voltages.

Answer 3

Current starts to become dangerous when it reaches as little as 10 mA. So 500 mA is definitely dangerous. It isn't the voltage which will kill you it is the electron flow which is the deciding factor. The high voltage shocks one gets from static charges is certainly noticeable but unless it is on the order of a lightning strike it is just a nuisance. Some medical researchers back in the bad old days of animal testing found that fibrilation of the heart could be brought on by as little as 5 mA if the current went directly through the heart. Usually high current shocks, ie shocks of 1 A or more will produce burns ranging from 1st degree up to 3rd degree depending on the particular circumstances. Our skin has some resistance to current but alot depends on the amount of moisture present. If you very lightly touch the leads of an ohmeter your skin resistance might be 20 k ohms, so if you were touching a 110 V line and the path of this current was through two fingers of one hand the shock would be noticeable but unlikely to be fatal. However if you touched the same power wire and were standing on concrete with slighly damp shoes the shock could seriously harm you.

Answer 4

500 Ma is 50% of one amp. That amuont of amperage will not even give you a poke and can only be read from the Ma (Miliamp) scale on a digital multimeter. 50 amps will jolt up your arm and knock you on your butt. 150 amps, under the right circumastance will kill you. I have worked with up to 600 Amps of power at 480 volts. Saw one guy touch a live 240 volt at 60 amp and his arm split like a microwaved hotdog.

Answer 5

500 milliamps can turn you into a charred mass of flesh and bone. 0.1 amps is enough to kill you. The voltage level only makes a difference between damp skin, or dry skin. 12 volts, if it can get to raw flesh where conductivity would be best can kill.