Question about electric shock

[HandySparks]

With electric shocks, it's the amperage which causes the biggest problem.
Higher the amperage the more severe the damage.
With a live circuit the amperage will be a combination of how much can flow through your body plus whatever amperage is already on the circuit.
Lighting circuits are generally rated at 6A, but rarely run anywhere near that.
If you allow 100W for each light, it would give you just less than half an amp per light. 60W about a quarter of an amp.
So if you know how many lights on the circuit were on at the time you received the shock, you can calculate the amperage on the circuit.

This is a wind-up.......isn't it?

 

[Darkwood]

Can we stick to answering the OP question, we are slightly getting off track here with some replies.

Feel free to start a new thread/pole regarding members and how many times they have had a shock

 

[westward10]

With electric shocks, it's the amperage which causes the biggest problem.
Higher the amperage the more severe the damage.
With a live circuit the amperage will be a combination of how much can flow through your body plus whatever amperage is already on the circuit.
Lighting circuits are generally rated at 6A, but rarely run anywhere near that.
If you allow 100W for each light, it would give you just less than half an amp per light. 60W about a quarter of an amp.
So if you know how many lights on the circuit were on at the time you received the shock, you can calculate the amperage on the circuit.

Is this serious!

 

[telectrix]

this thread is shocking. time for closure.

 

[westward10]

The amount of current which flows is dependant on body resistance and the applied voltage. This body resistance will be dependent on where across the body it flows, hand to hand can be very hazardous as it is likely to bring the heart into the equation. If you are wet the body resistance will be reduced dramatically and hence more current will flow this is why bathrooms and swimming pools are Special Locations due to increased risk. Simple ohms law and we are all different.

 

[Deleted member 26818]

So if you were to insert yourself into a circuit which already had 20A flowing through it, how much current would flow through you?
Would it be more or less than the 20A?

 

[Silly Sausage]

So if you were to insert yourself into a circuit which already had 20A flowing through it, how much current would flow through you?
Would it be more or less than the 20A?

Less than 20A, depending on your resistance, but how often do you put oneself in series in a circuit?!
Remember, touching an energized whatever, you're in parallel with said whatever.

 

[westward10]

So if you were to insert yourself into a circuit which already had 20A flowing through it, how much current would flow through you?
Would it be more or less than the 20A?

Will depend on body resistance at the time, your resistance will restrict the 20A current. It certainly won't be 20A.

 

[Deleted member 26818]

So what happens to to rest of the 20A?
Does it just fade away?

 

[Richard Burns]

If you were to insert your body into a series circuit that previously was carrying 20A then you would be adding (approximately) 1000 ohms resistance into the circuit, this, compared to the 11 ohms that was there before, would reduce the current to about 0.23A to flow through you.

The way I see it is the problem with electric shocks is that the current will make a path through you and cause damage to the cells of the body. This is the part that causes significant damage internally.
However this is generally only encountered where the current can be high enough to kill and the voltage high enough to jump across inconveniently high resistances in the body.
The electrocution effect is stopping the heart which may not cause a lot of damage to cells but does tend to kill outright.

Most of the shocks that some people receive will be very low current (above 10mA) perception limit but below the 50mA (or so depending on time) killing level.
Time is a key component in both death from electric shock and cell damage.