I have seen lots of electrocution videos where the victims get “glued” to the very object that killed them, like electricity poles, to the point that they stay in the air and not fall on the ground. How/Why?
In: Physics
Enough power will cause your muscles to contract. In the case of your hands, the stronger muscles of the ones that close your hand (grip) vs open your hand, the closing muscles are stronger. So your hand will just grab onto whatever is in it… If you’re now gripping onto the electrified objection, the person has no control in releasing it.
So, yeah, that does happen.
Imagine your body is like a puppet with strings attached to your arms and legs. When electricity passes through your body, it makes those strings pull really tight, causing your muscles to squeeze and tighten up, kind of like when you make a really tight fist with your hand.
Now, if you were holding onto something when the electricity hit you, your hand would clamp down on it really hard and your muscles would lock up, making it seem like you’re stuck to that thing, even after the electricity stops.
So, it’s not that you’re really glued to it, but your muscles are just so tight and stiff from the shock that you can’t let go or move away. It’s a scary thing that can happen when people get shocked by electricity.
Answer: Your muscles are controlled by electrical impulses. If you grab an electrified object, the electrical current may signal your muscles to contract, and so your hand would clench even tighter around the object you are holding. You’ll notice in depictions of this that the whole body becomes stiff, because all the muscles are being activated at once.
If they just touch the object with like a finger tip, then the force of their muscles activating would likely jerk them away from the object. Only if they had grasped the object would they become “glued” to it.
Body controlled by little zappy, little zappy make muscles strong. Big Zappy make muscles very strong, can’t let go.
When you get electrocuted, your muscles contract. Now, if you happen to touch something that has electricity running through it with your hand or anything that conducts electricity, the contracted muscles might make your hand grab onto the object and make it difficult for you to let go
That’s not what happens. What can happen is that if you grab a live conductor and get electrocuted, your hand cramps up leaving you holding the damn thing unable to let go because you have no control over your muscles anymore. Electricity is so dangerous because electric signaling via your nerves is also how you move your muscles. But voltage is voltage, your muscles don’t know it’s external, they react anyway.
That includes muscles in your heart, which you need to work according to signaling from your nerves, not to cramp up randomly. If your heart stops pumping because you are being electrocuted, it doesn’t pump blood anymore and your brain dies of oxygen starvation pretty quickly.
Your body uses electrical signals from your brain to tell your muscles to tense. The muscles are listening for these tiny electrical signals whispering for them to close or relax.
When you get electrocuted you have electricity flowing through your muscles. So what your muscles are hearing is “TENSE UP!” and if you’re holding onto an electrical wire the tiny whisper from your brain telling your hand to let go will not be loud enough to make your hand stop gripping the cable.
I learned this from my electronics teacher in high school –
He was working a power saw one day when the a break in the wire caused a path from one hand, through his arms, to the other. Both hands clamped on and wouldn’t release. However, he did remember that you usually retain control of your pectoral muscles in that situation – so before he was killed, he brought his still-clenched hands together and shorted the fault, allowing him to let go.
I thought I’d let you know that there is a difference between electrocution and being shocked (electrified).
If someone is shocked (electrified), they have electricity flowing through their body. It is usually painful.
If someone is electrocuted it is a portmanteau of electrified and executed, so for someone to be electrocuted they have to be killed by the electricity.
Years ago, I picked up an electric saw and the extension cord at the same time. There was a short in the cord and the saw was metal. As I was getting shocked, I was trying to to throw both the saw and cord out of my hands, but the electrical current had my muscles contracted and I couldn’t let go. I was screaming like crazy and luckily there was someone with me who unplugged the cord.
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