If you hold both the + and – with your hand, why doesn’t it shock you? Is it just too weak, or what?
In: Engineering
Best way to explain this is with a quick explanation of how electricity moves, and best way to do that is with water analogy. You got a water hose, you pinch it off, the water wants to get out but cant. Water pressure from your spigot isnt really that high, so it just stops and sits there. Now you got a water hose hooked up to the bottom of Hoover Dam. Thats like…a lot of water pressure. You could try to pinch it off if you want, but the water will probably blow right through the hose and through you. In simple terms, Voltage is the water pressure, the higher it is, the more likely the electricity is to blow through something. AA batteries are very low voltage and arent able to blow through the insulating properties of your skin. Fin.
Your skin is a somewhat decent insulator for the voltages you come across daily, AA batteries are 1.5V, but even car batteries at 12V, or even voltages as high as 30V aren’t enough to be felt by most people
However some areas, most notably your mouth, eyes and nose, have lower resistance and there you can feel even voltages as low as a AA, although not very much, at about 5-10V it starts becoming pretty painful on your tongue
Yes, the voltage is just too weak, along with your high skin resistance.
On the other hand, if you were to put the battery in your mouth, you would definitely feel a slight shock. This is even more noticeable with a 9v battery.
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