When is it safe for electric current to pass through the body, and when is it dangerous?
I don’t mean quantity of voltage; I mean that is it dangerous if I were to hang from a live wire (aka not grounded), or if I am grounded is that dangerous? Is it possible to have electric current flowing through the body safely, then instantly die because you touch a ground/stop touching a ground?
In: Physics
It can kill you if you are grounded or if your body’s resistance to current flow is lower than any other pathway (ex. Air). If 35 Milliampere or more goes through your heart it will kill you. If you are grounded but the pathway through your body does not go through your heart, you may be severely burnt, especially where the current enters/exits your body. But if the voltage is low (ex. 12 Volts) and the amperage is low (ex. 1 Amp) you won’t feel any effect. At 120 Volts (or over)and 1 Amp of current the higher Voltage will allow the current to overcome skin/flesh resistance and the current to flow through you. If this current hits your heart, you’ll be dead.
If the current has nowhere to go, then it isn’t flowing through you. Specifically because of this, it *can* be safe to touch wires provided there is no ground, but this isn’t really the kind of thing you want to experiment with doing. After all, if there exists a path to ground that you don’t realize is there, the current will find it, and you won’t be able to marvel at the fascinating paths electricity can take from six feet under.
The intensity of the current passing through your body, measured in amps, is what kills you. Current will only flow when there is a potential difference (voltage) between 2 points with low enough resistance. It will take the path of least resistance to the ground. Since air is an insulator, the current will not *likely* flow through you when you are not grounded. I said “likely” because as voltage gets higher, insulators stop being effective. This is when arcs form, like lightning. So you can get electrocuted even when you are not touching the ground or the wire if the gap is short enough for electricity to arc. This is why it is highly dangerous to get close to power lines and transformers. Safe distance depends on the voltage.
Birds can stand on power lines and be fine because they are not grounded. A small amount of current will go through their legs as they form a parallel branch, but the resistance of this path is so much higher that only a tiny tiny fraction of the total current will go through their legs. Similarly, if you just hang from a live wire there won’t be enough of a voltage difference across you for any meaningful amount of current to flow. But the second you touch ground, you will form a direct path from high to low voltage and current will flow through you. This current will cause your heart to spasm and cramp if it flows through it, and at high enough currents you will experience internal burns. If you’re close enough to a path to ground but not touching it, you can have a current flow through you and arc to that ground, or you can act as a capacitor and have current flow in and out of you with the alternating current. It is never safe to have current flow through you except in very small amounts.
[Here’s a video of linemen climbing on a high voltage transmission line.](https://youtu.be/9tzga6qAaBA?si=Mi1H-WtAhly-aCKl) They have to be placed on it with a helicopter to avoid ever being close to a path to ground and they wear clothes made with metal fibers so that current flows around them rather than through them.
*Never come into contact with high voltage electric systems unless you are a trained professional.*
You seem to have a basic misunderstanding of how electricity works. Many people do.
If you are handing from a high voltage wire…..and not touching anything else, then it’s unlikely that *any* current would flow through you. This is because for current to flow there needs to be a difference in voltage. If you’re touching the same wire, then the voltage will be almost exactly the same at every point you are touching the wire. And since there is no difference in voltage, then no current will flow.
However if part of your body came into contact with something else then current could then flow and in that scenario it would be enough to kill you and have it hurt the whole time.
Also, in general, how damaging current flow through you body is has to do with three things:
1- How much current
2-How long the current flows
3-What pathway it takes.
Things like voltage don’t *directly* harm you, however, voltage plays a huge part in how much current flows from point A to B, so high voltage can easily cause high current which will kill you painfully.
Necessary Disclaimer: electricity is dangerous and can kill or seriously injure you. Do *not* play with energized electrical elements or work with them unless you are properly qualified to do so.
>When is it safe for electric current to pass through the body, and when is it dangerous?
Essentially, it is always dangerous, unless it is such a small amount of current that it can’t do much damage, or unless it is applied very specifically.
>I mean that is it dangerous if I were to hang from a live wire (aka not grounded)
Theoretically, in this situation there wouldn’t be any current flowing through you (or very little current). Electrical current needs a path from high voltage to low voltage, it doesn’t just circulate around inside you.
>or if I am grounded is that dangerous?
Yes, if you are grounded and touching a live wire, then the current probably has an attractive path from high voltage (the live wire) to low voltage (the ground), and it will travel through you to get there.
>Is it possible to have electric current flowing through the body safely, then instantly die because you touch a ground/stop touching a ground?
Not in the way you’re talking about, no. Like I said, current doesn’t just slosh around inside you, it follows paths from high voltage to low voltage, if you’re not part of that path, it won’t flow through you. (This is oversimplified, but you get the idea)
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