I have encountered several articles and posts saying that what electrocute you and cause death is actually not the voltage but the current instead but is not clear to me how this works.
In: Physics
Voltage is the potential for charges to flow with a given energy. Current is actually how much charge is flowing per second.
So straight from the definitions, we see that current is quite literally the moving charges that could kill. Now for the metaphor…
Say you’re at the base of a skyscraper, and I’m on the roof. I have a very high potential to throw deadly bricks at you. That’s voltage. Voltage on its own doesn’t imply a current.
If you give me access to only a few bricks, that wouldn’t amount to shower of brick death. If you gave me access to ceaseless truckload of bricks, you’d probably die. That’s current.
Latest Answers