>>>>There was a scene where Charles Laughton (his character, a senator of rome) gave ohms to a peasant ...
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>>>That must have been electrifying !
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>>Is it volts, watts, or ohms that kill you?
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>Actually it is the "current" (amperes) passing through your body that will kill you. One of many ways to do that job. Ohms law describes the relationship of potential (measured in volts), resistance (measured in ohms) and current (measured in amperes). But without volts I guess there would be no amps so it could be said that it is really a combination of volts and amps that can kill you. A watt is a measure of power or work (Volts*Amperes).

Elmer;

Now you are in a part of my world – electronics – electricity. If about 25 ma (.025 amps) pass through the body muscles will be frozen. At 50 ma the heart will stop. Old timers taught me to work around electricity with one hand in your pocket. When you touch say a grounded connection with one hand and a hot line with another then current can flow through the heart. If you touch an electric plug with one hand and get shocked there is a great chance you will be uncomfortable but not die.

If your shoes are in contact with a grounded surface, concrete for instance, you can receive a lethal shock if you come in contact with an electrical source. The higher the frequency the greater the energy is a basic law of physics. Regardless of the source the current is the killer! How much voltage does it take to kill a person? It depends. How moist is the skin, is the person in contact with a ground, and the variables go on.

Some people have survived touching extremely high voltages. Others have been killed with as little as 50 volts. When I was in Engineering College (I like Berkeley, rah, rah, rah!) our professor was suddenly called from the classroom. He was called by our local utility company PG&E, to help resolve a serious incident. PG&E was constructing the first extremely high voltage transmission system in California’s Central Valley. A worker touched the ladder attached to the side of a transmission tower at about shoulder height and was electrocuted.

The typical electrical transmission system in use in our area in the early 1970’s was limited to 100kv. The new system was over 1000 kv. It seems like a simple task to run a few electric lines from point A to point B. With the new system there was a great change in technology based upon safety and physics. The problem was caused by the conventional grounding used for the 100 kv towers. The new system generated a great deal of current through induction. Within a length of five feet there was enough current to kill a person.

One area of electronics I was associated with was Metrology. We got involved with repair and calibration of electronic test and measurement equipment as well as medical equipment. Patients were being killed when receiving treatments at UCSF and Stanford Hospitals while having such things as EKG’s. It seemed that the current flowing through some medical instruments was too high and we had to define and resolve the problem.

Tom