How am I not dead?

[Deere Dude]

I was about 13-14 and my cousin was a year or two old. My dad and his dad were getting worms out of the ground sticking a 120v probe into the ground. It worked great.

My cousin said we should run up and grab the probe for a second to get a tingle. I was to hold his hand and he was to grab the probe. We did that, only I let his hand go a split second before he grabbed the thing. It floored him like he was an all star wrestler getting pounded to the mat. He just flopped on the ground and my dad unplugged the prob.

I don't know what the voltage was, 12v or 110v but I took a mental note from that experience.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

I appreciate all the explanations...and the stories. I've had more than my share of previous adventures with electricity. While installing vinyl siding, I drove a nail thru the wall into the main breaker. There was a very loud pop. I went inside and saw where the nail had gone thru, touched one of the wires at the top and melted. I had my electrician come and fix it. When I was a kid, I took my mom's car keys and stuck them in the electric socket in the wall. My brother kicked me off of it....I was buzzing and screaming. We had a lightbulb blow out in the dryer. When I grabbed the bulb to remove it, it broke in my hands and I got zapped. That burned the skin on my hand. I had a physical scheduled for the next day and asked the doctor about it. He said I should have come to the doctor....they would have observed me for several hours....But since I didn't die overnight, it was all good. I saw a guy get hit with 220 in the army. Another member of my unit had just read about what to do so he basically snatched him off the ladder. They both had minor burns. The guy who had gotten hit was very reserved and struggled with physical fitness tests before the accident. About a week afterwards we were running and he was laughing. It no longer felt difficult to him. He also was no longer shy....became a ladies man...Some of my friends thought it just gave him a new perspective on life. I think the electricity running thru his brain changed him.

 

[k0ua]

The close-est I ever came to real danger was when I reached into an old Television set to change out one of the tubes in the tuner. I was a TV tech, and knew enough to keep one hand in my pocket. But some how I get on the 330 volt DC line on one of the feed thru's on the tuner and my arm was touching the ground side of the tuner. I got zapped really big time. Far worse than sticking your keys in a 120 volt outlet. I had to sit down for a while even though the path was from fingers to the side of the same arm and I did not have a path thru my heart. That would have been probably a death sentence. I have never forgotten that one.

 

[Renze]

My mother once pressure washed the pavement, and grabbed the pushbar of the pressure washer, standing in an inch of water. Power cable vibrated through om that pushbar so my mother got a spark of 400v three phase through her. My father came around the corner, crying why are you grunting like a hog, dont do so stupid ! My mother whined "i couldnt help it, it was the electricity!" Whilst still laying on her back shaking in a puddle of water....

She sat on a chair for the rest of the day and had sores muscles all over, for two weeks.

....and my father couldnt stop apologising for laughing at her for the deformed, involuntary grunt.

 

[dalroo]

While we are telling stories - a high school buddy of mine invited us to his parent's cabin at the lake. When they left from visits, they would unscrew the main fuse - the old threaded glass kind. We showed up and before even unloading cars went swimming for an hour or so. After getting out of lake, my buddy asked me to go screw in the fuse. I was still dripping wet, barefoot, and playing electrician. I remember the shock, but don't know how I let go. I do know that I was on the floor all the way across the room when I stopped. I learned a valuable lesson that day that has stuck with me now for nearly 35 years.

 

[Howling]

Many years ago, working in a control cabinet I leaned in to an open frame motor starter. Three legs of 480 on my shoulder while holding grounded line in that hand. It blew me right out of the cabinet. I was running around all charged up for the rest of the day.

I design and build with touch safe components these days. Once is enough.

 

[newbury]

The first time is often very memorable.
I had to be about 4 or 5, before first grade. Playing around by my parents bed I reached up and grabbed a poorly insulated plug in an outlet. I can still vividly remember seeing the fright in my mothers eyes as I started spasms, luckily yanking the plug out of the wall.

I've had a healthy respect for electricity ever since.

 

[handirifle]

It's NOT voltage that kills, it's amps. It takes less than 1 amp to kill, if it hits the heart. In the OP's case his left arm provided the entire circuit and the power never needed to go through his heart. Had he hit it with his left elbow and grabbed something with his RIGHT hand, he may not have made the post. I GUARANTEE you, 12v will penetrate the skin, and your heart, especially when the source is a automotive battery.

Don't believe me, run the voltage on a welder down to 6v and grab the electrode and the ground clamp. Just make sure your life insurance is paid up first.

Higher voltage tends to lock the muscles faster, and we are usually able to pull off it in most cases.

Everybody is different. I used to work at a transmission shop in the late 60's, before going into the Army. The owner of the shop, could and did, hold onto both hot leads of a 220v live line. I wouldn't go near him while he was doing it, but he would arc them to metal to prove they were hot. He could barely feel 120v he said.

 

[TemporaryKubotaOwnerMark]

It's NOT voltage that kills, it's amps. It takes less than 1 amp to kill, if it hits the heart. In the OP's case his left arm provided the entire circuit and the power never needed to go through his heart. Had he hit it with his left elbow and grabbed something with his RIGHT hand, he may not have made the post. I GUARANTEE you, 12v will penetrate the skin, and your heart, especially when the source is a automotive battery.

Don't believe me, run the voltage on a welder down to 6v and grab the electrode and the ground clamp. Just make sure your life insurance is paid up first.

Higher voltage tends to lock the muscles faster, and we are usually able to pull off it in most cases.

Everybody is different. I used to work at a transmission shop in the late 60's, before going into the Army. The owner of the shop, could and did, hold onto both hot leads of a 220v live line. I wouldn't go near him while he was doing it, but he would arc them to metal to prove they were hot. He could barely feel 120v he said.

Exactly right.

 

[k0ua]

I will be happy to demonstrate my left hand on one post and my right hand on the other post of a 12 volt automotive battery all day every day. And yes anything over .050 amperes of current through the heart could cause death. But how are you going to get .050 amps or more current to flow across your heart with a 12 volt battery? The only way I can think of is to jam electrodes into you meat. You sure aren't going to do it with normal skin. Maybe very salty sweat soaked skin with open cuts? When you speak of running a welder down to 6 volts.. Of what welder do you speak? Did you mean to say run a stick welder down to 6 amps? The Open center voltage of the electrode and the work clamp would still be much higher than 6 volts.

I would put a 6 volt automotive battery across my tongue, and would be very happy to demonstrate that. I commonly test 9 volt batteries by placing them across my tongue. That is my normal test procedure.

What you have to understand is the relationship of Ohm's law. Yes it takes very little current (measured in Amps) to kill if the current path is through the heart, but it takes voltage (measured in Volts) to develop the current flow through the resistance (measured in Ohms) that our bodies present in opposition to the flow of electrical current.

For example the resistance of dry skin varies per individual, but somewhere between 1000 and 100,000 ohms. And our Meat has somewhere between 300 and 1000 ohms.

So lets do the math shall we? Lets use worst case values, 2 pieces of skin each at 1000 and a chunk of meat in the middle at 300 ohms. The battery's internal resistance would be very low as it is capable of delivery several hundred amps if short circuited, and since we don't have any other wiring to deal with as we are grabbing the posts directly that will not be a factor either. So our circuit will have 12 volts, 2300 ohms, lets solve for the Current in Amps.

E=IR so the voltage (E for Electromotive force) is on one side of the equation, the I (current in Amperes) X the R (resistance in ohms) is on the other. So we need to divide thru by the R.

12/2300= I do the math .005=I So our current is .005 amperes. About 1/10 the amount necessary to cause fibrillation of our heart.

This is worst case scenario. Now if you had open cuts on your hands, soaked in salt water or electrodes jammed into our meat... I would not want to risk it.

When we deal with higher voltages, we can talk about charing, an skin breakdown, and capacitive effects also when we deal with AC currents, but we were talking about automotive batteries.

When we make blanket statements that it is not the voltage that kills you it is the current, that is not quite true. It is the voltage AND the current that kills you in relation to the amount of resistance to current that you body exhibits that kills you. You must have an understanding of these relationships to know what is dangerous and what is not.

And yes I really will put my tongue across a 6 volt automotive battery. And I will draw no more current than if I put my tongue across a 6 volt lantern battery. Even though the 6 volt automotive battery is capable of producing several hundred times the amount of current.

I don't know why these elementary electrical principles are not taught in grade school. I feel they should be.