Why is it safe to touch the electricity-outputting end of our phone and computer chargers with no sort of electric shock on us as opposed to other dangerous electrical outputs?

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Exactly as stated in the title. All my life I’ve been able to touch my phone or computer’s electrical charger output (accidentally or for whatever the reason) with no sort of “buzz” or feeling from the electricity going through the output. At least that has always been my experience with it.

Just in case: Don’t intentionally try this of course.

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Anonymous 0 Comments

there are several reasons:

– current type: DC (direct current like from a battery or your phone charger) is not as good at delivering an electrical shock as AC (alternating current, like you get from your wall outlet)
– voltage (like water pressure): lower voltages (like the 5 volts from a traditional phone charger), cannot travel through skin under normal circumstances. higher voltages are more effective at traveling through more difficult things like dry skin, and even the air. (current from tesla coils is in the thousands of volts and can shoot several feet through the air)

9 volts DC (like from a 9v battery) is still not enough to shock your skin, but if you touch it to your tongue, you will feel tingles. so on the other side of things, you have the material electricity needs to travel through. they all have different levels of resistance. if they let current pass through easily, they’re called conductors. if they’re good at resisting current flow, they’re called insulators. rubber, air, and glass are good insulators of electricity. metals like copper and aluminum are good conductors of electricity. dry skin is not, but the wet skin of your tongue is a bit better, and just enough to where you can start to feel a small shock on your tongue

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