How do eels shock people? Where does the electricity come from?

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How do eels shock people? Where does the electricity come from?

In: Biology

2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Bodies are pretty much always producing small electric signals. Smartphone touchscreens actually detect that electricity in us to know where we touched the screen. There’s basically cells that produce a tiny bit of electricity. What electric eels evolved to do is have them work in unison. So, whereas we can just make a constant, low-level electric signal, they can do that or synchronize it all so there’s a real zap.

Anonymous 0 Comments

So the eel produces electricity by having cells that separate ion concentrations. Ions are particles with electric charge. When you separate the concentration you create a charge gradient which is a way to store energy. When the ions are allowed to flow freely they will flow from high to low concentration which is going to create electricity. Put a lot of these cells together and the electric output can be rather impressive. These cells work on a very close idea as your nerves and are more or less adapted from nerves.