Electric(volt) question

As in resistance.

The built in resistance of your skin, even when wet, is high enough to keep the low voltage (pressure) from pumping much juice (amperage) through you. It's an ohm's law thing. :-)

Your tongue has very little resistance, that's why licking a 9 volt battery stings. There's very little current capacity in that little battery, so it doesn't hurt much. Don't try licking your battery cables hooked up to your truck, you may well regret it because there's a lot more amperage capacity there.

Interestingly, if you build one of those electric rust removing bath systems and place your hand in between the anode and cathode, you'll feel the current. Get your hand close to either of them, and it can really hurt.

This is one of those questions where there's no correct answer for everyone.

We all have a difference tollarence to electricity wheather it be DC or AC. I would never say one voltage is safe as then someone will come along that's ultra-sensitive to voltage and get zapped deader than a door nail from a 6v battery.

Electricity demands respect from everyone requardless of the voltage or current in question. That way everyone will survive!!!

T_Bone

Electricity has two effects on the human body. The first effect is to interfere with the flow of impulses along the nerves. This is what we feel, and what causes peoples hearts to stop, convulsions, etc., under certain conditions. The second effect is thermal, i.e., burning as a result of the current heating up the flesh its flowing through (just like an electic heating element on a stove).

In terms of being able to feel a shock, that is determined by the amount of current and what part of the body its flowing through. As noted above, the amount of current is a function of both the resistance of the body and the voltage trying to force current through it.

If you reduce the resistance of your body, such as having wet hands, it will take less voltage to force enough current to flow for you to feel it, and you might get a noticeable shock from a 24 volt battery. The 32 volt number that keeps being bantied about is kind of the average voltage that is required to force a "feelable" current through an average person with dry skin. Some people would feel a shock at a lower voltage, and some would require a higher voltage.

Whether or not you feel a shock is also a function of what part of your body the current is flowing through. A lot of people can feel a shock by putting their tongue across the terminals on a 9 volt transistor radio battery, although I don't. The combination of wet, salty skin and a short path allow more current to flow with a lower voltage.

With regard to the question below about an ignition coil, essentially what happens is the low voltage, high current flowing through the primary winding builds up energy in the magnetic field surrounding the coil core. When the primary current is interrupted, the magnetic field collapses, and the stored energy is returned to the secondary windings as high voltage with low current.

Even though the current through the high voltage side of the coil is low compared to the current initial put into the primary winding, its still enough to give you a good jolt, and the voltage is high enough to essentiall force all the current the coil can deliver through your body.

At DC, a 110 volt battery will give you a pretty good jolt. I know this from experience, having at one time (I'm dating myself) worked on mechanical teletype systems that used a 120 volt DC current loop to operate the selector magnets. (what really hurts is when you jerk your hand back from the shock & rip the back of it open on the adjacent row of pin blocks).

Finally, the 120 volt AC circuit in your house actually has a peak voltage of around 170 volts, which bites pretty good and under some circumstances can actually kill you.

Keith

We cant describe here in a paragraph what I spent yearsssss s in study in electrical engineering school and what can fill entire libraries buttttt t hope this can still help

John T retired electrical engineer

• Hobby farm

Sooooo ooo if you start with Current = Volts/Resistance and then plug in 24 volts and the extreme high resistance of our skin/body, theres just too little current flow to receive much of a shock sensation. HOWEVER if our skin is wet or sweat covered with salt water etc there might possibly be sufficient current flow to receive some degree of a shock sensation.

Buttttt consider if the voltage is 120 (household) then there is indeed enough current to get the painful shock sensation

Its possible to get about however much DC voltage you want by adding battery cells in series.

Hope this helps

John T

• Hobby farm

Our skin has sinificant resistance, and it takes VOLTAGE to get a current flowing through a resistance.

Some sources say a current as low as 6 Milliamps 6/1000 of an Amp) that you can't get away from can stop your heart.

I can tell you (from experience) if your skin is wet, a 24 Volt battery system WILL give you a shock, if you make good contact between the 24 Volts and ground. After ONE time, you won't wear a watch with a metal band while working around it, either!

You can make a "battery" of any voltage you want by connecting batteries in series.

You would NOT want to come into contact with 110 Volts DC. The resulting shock would be as bad (or WORSE) than contacting "wall socket power".

Series: 24 volts 100 amps {amps as per a single battery]
Parallel: 12 volts 200 amps.. {doubles the amperage]
These can be more LETHAL than your household supply which is governed by the 10/15 amp fuses.

By the way, fuses and circuit breakers on the 120 volt wiring in your house are to protect against a short circuit starting a fire. Under the right circumstances, you can be dead long before the fuse or circuit breaker opens the circuit. If you get across a 120 volt line, the current necessary to cause a fatal shock is only a tiny fraction of the current required to trip a circuit breaker or blow a fuse. It is also entirely possible to have a fault condition that has enough resistance to keep from blowing the breaker but can pass plenty of current to cause a fatal shock.

That's why we now have ground fault interrupters, which basically monitor the current in the supply (hot) and return (neutral) wires, and open the circuit if there's any difference. If there's a difference its because part of the current is flowing through an unintended path, which can be a human. GFI's respond fast enough and at low enough current levels to prevent a dangerous shock.

Keith

When I worked at the aluminum factory our anodizing line had tanks hooked up to 24V rectifiers that put out over 1000 amps.
The bus bars ran bare and you could touch both from the catwalk if you had the notion. Never had anyone shocked from it the 6 years I was there.