Eli5 How can high voltages push you away or is that a movie thing?
In: Biology
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No it’s certainly real. Electric shocks cause muscle contractions. The more energy in the shock the greater the muscle contraction, these contractions can physically throw you body in a direction. So in essence, you’re sort of throwing yourself.
Yes and no.
Being shocked will cause muscle contractions which can cause a person to jump. I was once shocked when I grabbed two bare conductors of a three phase circuit, I had stepped out of the room to get something, when I came back someone had flipped the breaker – I found myself on my butt a few feet back from where I started, no injuries.
Then of course movies are for show, they tend to greatly exaggerate such things. Just like when someone gets shot in a move they show them being hurled backwards, that does not happen in real life.
There is no force from a high voltage shock that can push you away, only the reaction of your own body.
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Some situations can create an explosion (called arc flash and arc blast, you don’t need to understand those, curious 5yo, they are just for your older brother to google for more) It’s not really as portrayed in the movie, but when two high voltage parts come too close together (by accident and without the usual fail-safe active), they create a small lighting bolt (called electrical arc, again the name isn’t needed for understanding) that produces so much heat it can even vaporize metal in some cases. That heat and hot gaz produced is the same result as what explosives do (transform a solid chemical into hot gaz)
But in most cases, it’s just gonna be a big fail-safe calmly turning it all off, like when you try to use an hair dryer, an hair straightener or a toaster and a coffeemaker at the same time and you need to reset the black thingy switch (breaker- the fail-safe) in the cupboard in the basement (electrical panel). But that doesn’t make for a good movie, so instead they portray what life would be without breakers (or fuses, which is the same, but is a one time use).
It’s not a movie thing. I licked a power cable as a kid (a voice told me to) went across the room.
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