Article View: sci.electronics
Article #18845Re: shock box
From: George Wu
Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1988 02:11
Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1988 02:11
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1618 bytes
In article <2945@zodiac.UUCP> jshelton@ads.com (John L. Shelton) writes:
>Two things are required to inflict damage on a human via
>electric shock:
>
>1. Voltage. Low enough voltage will not cause damage (at least DC).
>2. Current. It takes a certain amount of current (I believe 75 ma,
>but don't rely on this) to stop a heart.
>
>=John=
It's not the voltage that causes your heart to stop, but the current.
Naturally, voltage and current are related, but it's the current that really
matters. I've always been told current as low as 20 mA can be dangerous.
I wouldn't be suprised if even lower currents interfered with the
functioning of a pacemaker.
A high school physics teacher of mine used to zap kids who fell asleep
with a pretty good charge, until some parent threatened to sue him and the
school. I don't know what current was involved, and kids tend to be pretty
healthy, but I've always thought was lucky.
--
George J Wu
UUCP: {ihnp4,ulysses,cbosgd,allegra}!clyde!gwu
ARPA: gwu%clyde.att.com@rutgers.edu or gwu@faraday.ece.cmu.edu
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!gwu From: gwu@clyde.ATT.COM (George Wu) Newsgroups: sci.electronics Subject: Re: shock box Summary: Current determines how dangerous a shock is. Keywords: electric shock current Message-ID: <23051@clyde.ATT.COM> Date: 11 Mar 88 02:11:27 GMT References: <307@trwind.ind.TRW.COM> <4881@videovax.Tek.COM> <1231@uop.edu> <3616@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <2945@zodiac.UUCP> Reply-To: gwu@clyde.UUCP (George Wu) Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Whippany NJ Lines: 29