harm full effects of ac and dc electricity?

Answer 1

death!

ac repels, it throws you across the room fracturing your skull, DC grabs hold and boils the liquid in your body, causing death...

obviously low voltages wont have any effect, but any supply with 10 amps behind it can kill you, in excess of 100 amps and it will kill you.

Answer 2

This is a very general question since it does not discern between the
>possible harmful secondary effects of the electrical source EMF and is not
>clear whether it is referring just to electrocution. I will briefly respond
>to just the electric shock difference between the two.
>
>The amount and kind of injury depends on six things - voltage, amperage,
>resistance, type of current, path of current, and duration of exposure.
>
>Voltage is a measure of electrical force. The greater the voltage, the
>greater the tissue damage. Voltage typically ranges from a house current of
>120 volts to a high-tension wire current of 1,000 volts or more.
>
>Type of current means whether the charge is AC or DC. Lightning is a direct
>current (DC) which possesses much stronger voltage than a high-tension wire.
>Generated electricity packs far less power and is an alternating current
>(AC).
>
>
> In humans, since AC is an alternating current, if a person is shocked by AC
>they will be seen to be shaking in sympathy with the frequency of the
>alternating current. If the current passes through the heart, by a person
>holding a live wire in their left hand and their right foot is in water and
>not their left, then there is a much greater chance the current will effect
>the pacemaker of the heart and possibly cause fibrillation (where the heart
>pumps little to no blood). DC current, tends to jolt the person with no
>shaking but still can have the same effect in that if the current runs
>through the heart it can have serious consequences. In both these
>situations the amount of current is of course very important.
>
>Amperage is the flow of the current and, when combined with voltage, is what
>causes the most damage. The greater the amperage, the greater the damage to
>tissue.

Answer 3

AC is usually considered to be more harmful because it alternates (at least from a wall socket in the US) at 60 Hz, which is coincidentally approximately equal to the rate at which your nerves send messages to your heart to beat, etc. So if the AC has enough voltage and current then it could interfere with your heart and potentially stop it. Typically large voltages will not harm your body if it is of a small enough current. This is why many people who have been struck by lightning survive, also look up some of Tesla's high voltage exeriments. He very often walked into the middle of some scary looking experiments to prove that they are harmless. However, if it is of a large current then it can harm or kill you.

Answer 4

AC tends to be worse for your heart because the alternating voltage desynchronizes all the muscle cells in your heart, leading to a fatal heart attack.

However, DC causes muscles to clench up, perhaps making it unable for you to let go of an electrified wire.

AC and DC were also the focus of a long and nasty feud called the War of Currents. It involved Thomas Edison inventing the electric chair and staging public electrocutions of all kinds of animals to demonstrate the dangers of AC. George Westinghouse and Nikolai Tesla took the opposite side, arguing that DC was inefficient for long-distance electricity transmission. Edison lost in the end.

Answer 5

i would guess that either could be harmful, but whether it is due to electric field strength, magnetic field strength or electromagnetic field strength? dc supplied loads with high switching speeds can produce similar effects to ac (i think) so ?? dont know, but when you consider that asbestos is considered harmful because is has tiny small jagged particles that can get stuck and cause cancer?(I think, or something like that) it is not too difficult to imagine that these fields can effect biological material in some manner.
I wouldnt worry too much about it, when you goto go......

Answer 6

of course, if not handled correctly, you will get injured or killed... but i thought this was really interesting. apparently, when AC was first introduced, there was actually belief that if AC voltage has high enough amplitude and was at the right frequency, it can actually crack the core of earth... i think this was the theory of the AC voltage's inventor, i forgot his name at the moment though. also, voltage don't kill people, current does, it stops your heart

Answer 7

The current needed to kill you is nowhere near 10 Amps.

One twentieth of an Amp (50mA) will do it.
That could set up Ventricular Fibrillation, which does tend to b*gger up your heartbeat.

Answer 8

Death is a pretty harmful effect.

Severe burns aren't too good either but not as bad as the first one.

Answer 9

both give u fatal shock if voltage is over4.5V bt dc is extremely harmful....it kills instantly....

Answer 10

Reggae is bad but country & western are fatal