Xref: utzoo sci.electronics:17297 alt.sex:24428
Path: utzoo!utgpu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ames!haven!wam!mauser
From: mauser@wam.umd.edu (Rich Chandler)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics,alt.sex
Subject: Re: HELP!
Message-ID: <1991Jan28.055428.11686@wam.umd.edu>
Date: 28 Jan 91 05:54:28 GMT
References: <1991Jan19.052458.7449@wam.umd.edu> <1991Jan24.041804.13890@wam.umd.edu> <1991Jan26.041208.25354@athena.cs.uga.edu>
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In article <1991Jan26.041208.25354@athena.cs.uga.edu> mcovingt@athena.cs.uga.edu (Michael A. Covington) writes:
>"It's not voltage that's dangerous, it's current"
>
>But voltage is the force that causes current!

Right, but it depends on how much energy is behind it.  (watts, joules, I 
forget my units.)  You can take a AAA battery, rig it to a coil that jumps
the voltage up to 40,000 and give someone quite a shock, but a perfectly
harmless one (My boss has a gag lighter that does just that).  You could also
hook someone up to the primary coil of you car ignition, also at 40,000 volts
and give them quite a serious shock.  Or you could drop a high tension line 
on them (yet again, 40,000 volts) and really fry them.
Through the right part of the body, between .1 and .2 amps can cause heart 
failure, and over .2 can kill.  (This from a chart in the lab in high school.
It suprised me too.  But think, nerve impulses are in microvolts...)

Also remember that there is more involved than just ohm's law.  Particularly 
with a battery involved.  The effective voltage of a battery drops the more
current you draw from it.  Your average 1.5 volt battery puts out 1.2 when you
use it, and even less under a high drain.
Anyway, skin resistance is very high, unless wet.  That's why 9-volts shock
your tongue and not your fingers.
>
>That's like saying, "It's not falling that's dangerous, 
>it's hitting the ground."

Very true.  It works for parachutists all the time.  It's not hitting the 
ground, it's how HARD you hit the ground.  The ENERGY behind it.

obSEX:  I've also read some interesting stuff about the use of electricity to 
induce orgasm....

--
"It takes three to limbo, and one of them has to go down."
"That which does not kill me had better be able to run damn fast."
"He who dies with the most toys, is, nonetheless, still dead."
"That sounds about as appealing as french-kissing a Lamprey."