When is it safe for electric current to pass through the body, and when is it dangerous?

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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

6 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

*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.

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