effect of high voltage on body

8/6/2019 Effect of High Voltage on Body

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Home > Science & Mathematics > Engineering > Resolved Question

When somebody gets an 'electric shock', what actually happens to his body?4 years ago ( 2006-04-07 03:54:15 )

mohdrifa...

Best Answer- Chosen by Voters

An electric shock can occur upon contact of a human or animal body with any source of voltage high enough to cause

sufficient current flow through the muscles or nerves. The minimum detectable current in humans is thought to be abou

1 mA. The current may cause tissue damage or heart fibrillation if it is sufficiently high. When (and only when) an

electric shock is fatal, it is called electrocution.

An electric shock is usually painful and can be lethal. The level of voltage is not a direct guide to the level of injury or

danger of death, despite the common misconception that it is. A small shock from static electricity may contain

thousands of volts but has very little current behind it due to high internal resistance. Physiological effects and damage

are generally determined by current and duration. Even a low voltage causing a current of extended duration can be fata

Ohm's Law directly correlates voltage and current for a given resistance; thus, for a particular path through the body

under a particular set of conditions, a higher voltage will produce a higher current flow.

Shock effects:-

Psychological

The perception of electric shock can be different depending on the voltage, duration, current, path taken, frequency, etc

Current entering the hand has a threshold of perception of about 5 to 10 milliamperes (mA) for DC and about 1 to 10 mA

for AC at 60 Hz. Shock perception declines with increasing frequency, ultimately disappearing at frequencies above 1520 kHz.

Physiological:-

Burns:- Tissue heating due to resistance can cause extensive and deep burns. High-voltage (> 500 to 1000 V) shocks

tend to cause internal burns due to the large energy (which is proportional to the square of the voltage) available from th

source. Damage due to current is through tissue heating.

Ventricular fibrillation:- A low-voltage (110 to 220 V), 60-Hz AC current traveling through the chest for a fraction of a

second may induce ventricular fibrillation at currents as low as 60mA. With DC, 300 to 500 mA is required. If the curren

has a direct pathway to the heart (e.g., via a cardiac catheter or other electrodes), a much lower current of less than 1

mA, (AC or DC) can cause fibrillation. Fibrillations are usually lethal because all the heart muscle cells moveindependently. Above 200mA, muscle contractions are so strong that the heart muscles cannot move at all.

Neurological effects:- Current can cause interference with nervous control, especially over the heart and lungs. When th

current path is through the head, it appears that, with sufficient current, loss of consciousness almost always occurs

swiftly. (This is borne out by some limited self-experimentation by early designers of the electric chair. and by research

from the field of animal husbandry, where electric stunning has been extensively studied)

Point of Entry:-

Macroshock Current flowing across intact skin and through the body. Current traveling from arm to arm, or between an

arm and a foot, is likely to traverse the heart, and so is much more dangerous than current traveling between a leg and

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Other Answers (1 - 30 of 97)

the ground.

Microshock Direct current path to the heart tissue

Source(s):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_sh

4 years ago ( 2006-04-12 00:43:10 )

44% 8 Votes

UjjU

he starts cooking

4 years ago ( 2006-04-11 22:13:11 )

0% 0 Votes

wise old,man

1. Define "electric shock".

2. Define "his body".

Your question is ambiguous and poor. The two extremely vague variables you've contained within your question make

answering a shot-in-the-dark at best. Help us, help you.

4 years ago ( 2006-04-11 15:22:11 )

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christop...

All muscles contract, usually goes straight to the kidneys. If it is a large amt then you need to go to the nephrologist to

have your kidneys checked, and if you wet yourself you are facing dehydration and need immediate mediacl attention.

(this is from maybe an accidental shock)

If from a defibrelator then the energy will only cross out the heart because it is only voltage and low amps. Also the

placing of the paddles is crucial to keep the energy focused solely on the heart. Hope I helped. :)

4 years ago ( 2006-04-11 19:09:11 )

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diannabi...

Hi Moh.....I guess uve gotten enough answers kindly choose one!Good luky!!!

4 years ago ( 2006-04-12 05:18:12 )

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fellow

An electrical current runs through his body, and if the current is high enough it will cook someone from the inside

out....it's incredibly painful even when you get a small shock. POut you rtongue to a batter y with teh 2 plugs on teh

end....this will give a small taste of whay electrocution feels like

4 years ago ( 2006-04-11 12:41:11 )

6% 1 Vote

E L M S

Electricity runs through the body. As to the technicality of what actually happens, I am sorry, I dont know.

4 years ago ( 2006-04-12 02:35:12 )




3/10


4/10

very radical and very weak at the same time. He was very ill.

4 years ago ( 2006-04-11 13:24:11 )

17% 3 Votes

rt

well the object that zaps him has a negetive charge and his hand has a positive charge and the positive electrons are

pulled to the object

4 years ago ( 2006-04-11 19:54:11 )

6% 1 Vote

hkyboy96

I have to agree with some other answers,

When Electricity passes through your body

it depends on the actual amount of current going

through your body

it can cause just a minor tingling to a full

burn of the skin and tissues around the area of

the electricity passing through.

COY4 years ago ( 2006-04-11 14:31:11 )

0% 0 Votes

Dwight W

he shakes

4 years ago ( 2006-04-11 13:20:11 )

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Penguin

Its cause me to have, SERIZERS thats the, TRUTH for # 19 years. ICHOOSETOTELLTHETRUTH

Electricity blows out you knees are feet it also causes bad nerve damage

Source(s):

Me and i wish it was not me.

4 years ago ( 2006-04-11 12:55:11 )

6% 1 Vote

ICHOOSET...

The bodys muscles tence up real tight and your body has a hard time letting go so thats what kills them.

4 years ago ( 2006-04-11 19:35:11 )

0% 0 Votes

idontlik...

Electric currents run through the guy's body.

4 years ago ( 2006-04-11 21:41:11 )

0% 0 Votes

The answerer




5/10

From the other answers here, there are obviously quite a few different, and mutually incompatible, views on this. They

sound almost as varied as religious beliefs. But there's a difference; at this level, electricity is very well understood, and

most of the effects when it travels through the body are also well understood. Religions are a matter of faith, however

strongly beliefs are held. Electricity is not a matter of faith.

I'll try to straighten out some of the confusion. But, there's obviously need of some background.

=========

electricity

This is essentially the behavior of electrons. They normally repel each other and spread out, over a surface or down a

wire or whatever. All invisibly, for electrons, even lots of them, aren't visible to us. If a pile of electrons is trapped on an

insulating surface, it's static electricity (ie, not moving). When they finally get a chance to flow, as for instance through

the air, there's a spark. Not so many trapped electrons, just a little flash and pop (and maybe a startled cat). Lot's of

trapped electrons, very large flash and bang -- it's lightning.

Electrons in a conductor (like a piece of metal) spread out very quickly and none are trapped. A herd of them can be

forced to travel down a wire by applying pressure (ie, voltage, measured in volts) from a battery (eg, in a flashlight) or a

generator (eg, at the power plant). Lots of voltage, lots of electrons will flow (ie, current measured in amps), not so muc

voltage fewer electrons will flow. And the nature of the material matters; some are offer very little resistance to electon

flow (eg, copper and silver are especially good), some offer a good bit more (eg, iron), some offer a lot more (eg, wetfabrics, damp wood, ...), and some are almost completely non-conducting (eg, glass, some plastics, most dry cloth, ..

Under some conditions, mostly very very cold ones, some materials don't have any resistance at all; they're

superconductors. And, for materials that don't usually conduct at all, a sufficiently high voltage will force them to. Air, fo

instance, doesn't conduct well at all. But with a sufficiently high voltage, it will breakdown suddenly and start. This is

why sparks (and lightning) are sudden things.

We generate voltages in two basic ways. A single voltage, more or less steady. This is what batteries do chemically,

and what the power supply (or wall wart) does in transforming wall current to 'Direct Current' for your electronic

equipment. Wall current itself is an example of the other kind of voltage, the steadily changing kind, 'Alternating Curren

The voltage increases to a peak, decreases to zero and falls further to a peak negative voltage, then increase back to

zero... In the US, the average voltage in household wall sockets is about 120V and it changes 60 times per second. In

Europe, it's 220V and 50Hz.

======

resistance

The human body is (electrically) a bag of salty wet stuff. The insides (the wet stuff) are easily conductive, partly becaus

of the salt which helps a lot. The outer covering is normally not so conductive, but when the skin sweats or gets wet, it

becomes abruptly more conductive.

There is a universal relation between voltage, current, and resistance. It's called Ohm's Law. And there's another

between current, resistance, and the amount of power delivered. So a motor with no mechanical load (ie, merely

coasting) will have a lower resistance at the same voltage than the same motor at a higher load (when the clutch

connects it to the fan blades or the pump). So a voltage will force current through a meterial (which has someresistance) and will deliver power to that material. When it's the resistance of a wire (or some other non mechanical

oad), the wire (or material) heats up since that's where the delivered power goes in that case.

So, if you hold a battery between two dry fingers, little current will flow (low voltage -- 1.5 volts for the most commoon

kinds of batteries -- and high resistance in dry intact skin. Little current flowing, littel heating in the material carrying the

current, in this case some skin. if the skin is wet, the resistant will go down a lot, and much more current will flow.

Because current always take the path of least resistance, it will be mostly confined to the surface of the skin.

========

biology and electricity




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On the other hand, if you connect the ends of that battery to two metal needles sticking into your flesh, there will be low

resistance and a good bit of current. If there are sensory nerves in the path of the current from one needle to the other,

you'll feel a tingle or perhaps even a very big tingle. BUT, THIS IS VERY VERY DANGEROUS. EVENT HE CURRENT

WHICH CAN FLOW THROUGH YOU FROM A 9-VOLT BATTERY IS ENOUGH TO STOP THE NERVES THAT MAKE

YOUR HEART WORK, STOP IT BEATING, AND KILL YUU IMMEDIATELY. YOU'LL NOT HAVE A CHANCE TO

BREAK THE CIRCUIT AND RECOVER. ANY LARGER VOLTAGE SOURCE WILL HAVE MUCH THE SAME EFFECT

It's happened several times, perhaps most famously to a US Navy sailor just beginning his electrical classes. He was

curious, so he used a meter to measure his 'internal resistance' by poking the sharp leads into his thumbs. What he

didn't realize was that the meter used a 9-volt battery to test resistance by using the current which flowed to move ameter needle.

Nerves are a kind of wire which manages to work even in a wet salty environment. Obviously, they don't work just the

way the an ordinary electrical wire does. They're biochemically active and they use that activity to manage the signals

they carry. The signals themselves are very very small (only a few millivolts, and at most a miliamp) and can easily be

swamped byt he sorts of voltages and currents we deal with everyday.

=========

electrical safety

If a voltage isn't so high that it's breaking down the materials aroudn it (lots and lots of sparks and hot materials and

probably fires), it's easy to be safe. Well, in theory, but people are sloppy and don't always think. The trick is to nevergive the voltage any chance to force some current to flow. If all such possilities are blocked, there won;t be any flowing

current, there won't be any heating effect, and there shouldn't be any trouble. This is why the linemen who work for the

power company can work on high voltage lines (from 2000V to 100000V or more) without getting killed every day. And

why TV repairmen can work on TVs without killing themselves (piture tubes have quite high voltages in places -- 10000

to 15000 volts).

Safety means that there are no grounded places which can be accidentally touched while also touching any part of a liv

circuit. Stand or sit on non-conductive rubber mats, work on properly isolated workbenches, use insulated tools, always

think 'safety', ....

=======

when safety fails

Somehow, there's been a mistake. You've touched something that's connected to a voltage source and the voltage tries

to force current through you (not much of a problem if there's nowhere for any current to flow) but then you touch

something which 'completes the circuit'. Instantly, current will begin to flow. What happens will depend on how much

current flows (which in turn depends on the voltage and the resistance in the flow path) and where it flows.

If it's lightning, there will be huge amounts of voltage and therefore lots and lots of current. The current going through yo

(there's some resistance even inside you in all that wet salty tissue) may heat up enough tissue to cause internal burns

Or if the current flows through your brain or heart, you may die as nerve operation is disrupted, tissue overheats, and so

on. If it flows through muscles, they may get a really strong 'contract now!' signal, which can result in twitches you can'

stop, or a spasm which can throw you across a room.

A less impressive voltage source (the wall socket, for instance) may kill you without much internal heating and so

without any burns. The sailor whose resistance meter (and his dumbth) killed him didn't have any internal burns. Or

perhaps not. If the current doesn't flow through you, but only near you, it might heat up something and you might get

burned. Like for instance, some kid sticking a paperclip or keys into a wall socket. Or a pet biting through an extension

cord, who will have current flowing between the wires using spit as the conducting materials, and quite possibly a burne

mouth.

A less impressive voltage source, like an automotive battery, is most likely to cause external burns, at least initially.

Like all electrical incidents, the tissue damage from the first contact, if severe enough, may expose internal tissues by

'removing' some surface skin. And when that happens, the current may begin to take a new path entirely, through

internal tissue. So a not very serious (it painful) first stage damage can easily lead to more serious second stage




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internal damage. And the twiches, flinches, and spasms that electrical contact causes can often change the situation i

an instant. A minor shock while working on the insides of a TV might very well cause a hand or elbow to contact a muc

more dangerious circuit point, making the beginning of the second stage much more dangerous.

========

oddities

Nikola Tesla was a most unusual man. He was, in the first instance, a genius. He invented the altlterantign current

electrical motor, and radio too (he won a patent fight with the Marconi interests over this second). And he was intereste

in odd effects, some quite dramatic, so he made good newspaper copy. One of then was the behavior of high frequencyalternating curent electricity.

High frequency currents don't usually behave the same way direct current or low frequency alternating current does. In

particular, there is a 'skin effect' on some surfaces and at sufficiently high frequencies. There are stories from around th

turn of the last century of poepl like Mark Twain visiting Tesla's research lab in Manhattan and being attched to one of

his electrical machines. There are even a few pictures. Tesla was able to arrange to have high frequency alternating

current flow over the skin of his subjects and they were able to cause odd effects by pointing their fingers and so on.

Some of the headlines suggested Tesla had 'tamed lightning'. We have dfound few uses for the sorts of high frequency

currents Tesla investigated, so they aren't well known. They're st ill good copy, though perhaps for Tesla enthusiast We

sites now more than the newspapers. Tesla seems to have become seriously obcessive compulsive in his later years

and was good copy for another reason altogether then.

Source(s):

See en.Wikipedia.org articles on, static electricity, alternating current, direct current, lightning, and Tesla. And the

pointers and links found in each.

The American Radio Realy League in Connecticut publishes books and papers many electrically related subjects. Not

all are about Ham radio. Several cover electrical safety in the electronics workshop or an electrical equipment room.

They're oriented toward practical issues and generally enjoyable.

Those interested in electronics might also consider Horowitz and Hill, The Art of Electronics, Camb Univ Press. It's the

most readable electronics textbook around. the authors cover quite a number of things that are usually left out of such

texts. And they include a page or two of tempting, but wrong, dim ideas in every chapter. Highly recommended.4 years ago ( 2006-04-11 17:06:11 )

0% 0 Votes

ww_je

the electicity runs through his body and is discharged into the ground

4 years ago ( 2006-04-11 15:20:11 )

0% 0 Votes

RaphaelD...

Your body is made of water which makes your bidy a good conductor of electricity. Your heart requires electricalstimulus from the body an outside source of electricity can either cause your body to quite working. Your muscles use

electricity to contract. that is why you can not let go to the source because the muscles clamp down and will not relax

until the power is turned off. A defibrillator sends a charge of electricity through your body at places that will send the

electricity through your body hopefully jumpstarting your heart.

Source(s):

I am an volunteer firefighter and have seen many forms of electric shock accidents. It's not pretty.

4 years ago ( 2006-04-11 16:53:11 )

0% 0 Votes




8/10

Slider

some of its internal organ burst..... i saw a man recieving a electric shock and he look like a friend pig... and some of its

part burst.......

4 years ago ( 2006-04-11 20:26:11 )

0% 0 Votes

regaki2

At least two things:

1) Our nervous system uses electric impulses to transmit commands from the brain to muscles. This impulses are very

finely tuned and precise. Now imagine what happens, if something goes into overdrive and starts shouting incoherent

commands to the muscles, which try to obey them. You get seizures and in the worst case a cardiac arrest

3) Electricity is a form of energy transmitted as a wave. Your body becomes part of this wave and particles start

oscillating. If the source of energy is strong enough, oscillation can literally boil things (inside the body). Ouch.

4 years ago ( 2006-04-11 13:25:11 )

6% 1 Vote

hec

His body feels the power surge thru him and if its strong enough, that is, more than the withstanding capacity, the resu

will be just like that of a short circuited appliance! LOL! Infact, thats the truth.. His/her body will be in a state that can b

described by no other..other than the person themselves! LOL!

Source(s):

ME!

4 years ago ( 2006-04-11 18:18:11 )

0% 0 Votes

Music Maniac

Electricity is a fast moving energy source that needs a closed circuit to work. Energy is another word for heat. Energy i

motion causes heat. When a person, who incidently is conducive to electricity considering we are like 75% water, is in

contact with electricity, it circulates through the body at a high speed causing a lot of friction causing heat causing

burns (notably at the port and exit of current) causing burn-outs...think of a fuse box. WE got control basically over an

overloaded box, and it can be repaired. People, on the other hand,... and if a person is being shocked, his nervous

system is so overloaded, his muscles contract, he can not let go of the source. If he could, dont you think he would

have?

Source(s):

News and Stuff ive seen and heard I could be wrong though

4 years ago ( 2006-04-11 13:00:11 )

0% 0 Votes

just_cru...

It causes 3 things in no time .. the current disrupt the heart beats .. interfere with the nerve pulses .. then the blood get

coagulated in al vessels and block the blood stream ... then the shocked person dies ..

4 years ago ( 2006-04-11 13:41:11 )

0% 0 Votes

ohwaw




9/10

the electrical impulses hit the nerve and causes a forced reaction which then makes you let go of that buzzer right away

4 years ago ( 2006-04-07 03:55:07 )

6% 1 Vote

Whodaman...

if u wanna know abt it just put ur 2 fingers in the switch,u will know better then tell me also(if u remain alive)

4 years ago ( 2006-04-12 00:48:12 )

0% 0 Votes

sanwal

he body is burt and he/she is dead!

4 years ago ( 2006-04-11 12:30:11 )

0% 0 Votes

me_me_ti...

Depending on where you are receiving the "shock" from, ie your hand, your head, a taser, etc. it will travel the distance

of your body which then causes you to let go. If you are tasered, for another example, you just have to let it "wear" off. I

will either lay you out like a board, or at least make you go down. If the voltage is of higher voltage, then you will usually

die ie - lightning strikes, touching a grounded "live" wire from the wires running parallel with the highways etc. IF it's froma toaster, or a hair dryer, you will just get a heck of a jolt, which will cause you to let go. Hopefully, other people won't

be hanging on as it will cause the electric current to travel from you to them. I reallly hope this doesn't happen to you!!

4 years ago ( 2006-04-11 23:44:11 )

0% 0 Votes

sweetier...

the electrical current runs right through your body, into the ground, or if you have both hands on the source, through one

arm, through your body, and out you other arm to the source again. as your heart runs on electrical impulses, the

shock, if high enough, can completely disrupt your heart pattern, or even stop it. oh dear

4 years ago ( 2006-04-07 04:02:07 )

6% 1 Vote

isurus

How long is a piece of string? The effect of electric shock depends on a wide variety of circumstances, such as:

The strength of the current.

The path the current takes through the body.

The duration of the electric shock.

The condition of the person receiving the shock.

amongst other things.

4 years ago ( 2006-04-07 04:03:07 )

0% 0 Votes

m1418smu...

Visit the following & see for yourself....

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10/10

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regards

effect of high voltage on body

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