why can you touch both sides of a 9V battery, you can even do it with a wet tongue and hardly get shocked, but a taser with that same battery can knock you out?
In: Chemistry
The difference between a taser and a bare 9V is the voltage or potential being put across the contacts.
Broad electrical lesson:
Voltage (V) – potential or how much the electricity wants to move. Low voltage = lazy electricity, high voltage = Freight train coming from contact 1 to contact 2. Basically the higher the V number, the easier it is for electricity to move or “flow”.
Resistance (R or Omega) – The size of the pipe the electricity flows through. Copper wire = very low resistance or water main, Rubber glove = very high resistance aka brick wall. This resistance can be overcome by higher voltage.
Side note: resistance creates heat which is what causes electrical burns/how a toaster works.
There’s also Amperage (A) – ^broad ^strokes how much electricity is flowing. Not really relevant to tasers.
Tasers work by applying several thousand volts across the contacts where a 9V applies…well, 9 volts.
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