What voltage and amps are and why high volts may not kill you but high amps will
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Remember that current = voltage divided by resistance.
High current may kill, but high current is caused by high voltage and/or low resistance. __Current is the actual flow of electricity, which is why we say it’s the dangerous part__, but these other two factors are very much related to current. You can’t have high current independently of the other two factors.
It doesn’t take that much current to kill you. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 50mA can stop your heart, which uses its own (smaller) currents to operate. That’s 0.05 Amps.
The resistance of your body tends to be pretty high, so it often does take fairly high voltage to generate that 50mA+ current through your heart, unless you’re stabbing the wires directly into your chest.
The resistance of your body varies a *LOT* though, depending on things like how moist your skin is, and which part of your body touches the wires. If you find a particularly low resistance path to your heart, a not-so-high voltage can still generate a lethal amount of current. So be careful, regardless of the voltage you’re working with!
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