Do Volts or Amps Kill You? Voltage, Current and Resistance

[@tanveersingh998]

Neither volts nor amps, it’s the electricity bill that kills me.

[@anselmrafael3309]

Then watt kils you?

[@dragonslayerornstein387]

@@anselmrafael3309 nope it's the kilowatt-hour that kills him xD

[@cathitombaugh9852]

LOL it sure could.

[@cathitombaugh9852]

@@anselmrafael3309 Thedistance!

[@JMjayesim]

@@anselmrafael3309 I see watt you did there 👏

[@juanzingarello4005]

The way my electrical engineer of a father explained it to me is this. Current is what directly kills you. The flow of the electrons through your body causes internal burns and your heart to stop. Voltage, which in water models is thought of as “Electrical pressure” is the probability of that current killing you. The higher the voltage, the further it can arc to you through insulators such as air and kill you. This is why, you usually see “Danger High Voltage” signs instead of “Danger High Amperage” signs. Its because higher voltage, you don’t need to touch a hot wire to be electrocuted. If you are in the kilovolt range, just being close enough to a power line or live bus in a sub station and grounded will get you killed.

[@billyandrew]

Thanks for that. Never thought about it, having seen such signs, but you make perfect sense, especially with regards to arcing.

[@princenoah21]

Wow That actually does make sense. 😮

[@harms123]

Energy kills, which is E = P * t = V * I * t You can't have current without voltage. The reason why a static shock doesn't kill you even though it can deliver a few amps at thousands of volts is that the duration is so short that the energy is only a few millijoules.

[@inso80]

There are more factors at play too. like biological.

[@harms123]

@@inso80 No

[@dandearman2871]

Sometimes it's not the volts or the amps that kill you but the jolt you get from a shock that knocks you off of your ladder and sends you smashing into the pavement.

[@bhoot1702]

Looks like you had an experience

[@yolowolfyt]

That's called metatraumatic injury

[@richarddonegan4666]

Thats it! The ground fried me. That 220! Nuttin like it!

[@champamampa6295]

I like to tell voltage is the gun and current is the bullet.

[@generalgrievous6990]

Thats what im searching for. Thx man

[@tedlahm5740]

Advanced Ghost Try touching the neutral bar in your ckt. panel. unbalanced current (amps) only. do we get a shock?

[@allmodescrew5548]

True kzbin.info/www/bejne/jnXJY6Gem92JsMk

[@bitTorrenter]

I would say a bullet would be a mass of electrons instead. The current would be dictated by the size of the chamber and the metallurgy of the material being used, the voltage by the energy released of an explosive being ignited. Of course you would have to take into account losses of power through any vibration. Anything else to add?

[@JoveRogers97]

Voltages don't kill people, circuits kill people

[@smokescreen2146]

- Amps kill but need high voltage to deliver them. - Anything below 30V is not enough to break human skin's resistance. - 450-600V skin will break down altogether easily allowing current through. - If wet skin, body's skin resistance drops from 100,000 ohms to 1,000 ohms. - How long the current flows also has effect. At 50 mA = 2 seconds to let go. 500 mA = 0.2 seconds. - Static electricity has a few thousand volts, but not enough charge to kill (and even if high current such as 12 Amps it is only for 1 millionth/micro of a second and far too brief to inflict serious harm).

[@MrUmpleby]

Cant have one without the other

[@tifanibogue4589]

Out of all the many videos, this one made the most sense to me. I’m 28 years old. When I was 8 in the 2nd grade, my dad was electrocuted on his job. 7200 volts. Burned ALL of his skin completely off. My dad is a dark skinned man, when I saw him for the first time in the hospital, he was PINK from the neck down! I was so young and didn’t understand but as I got older I started asking more questions. 450-600 can break the skin?!? I can only imagine what my dad went through! I thank God he’s still here 20 years later and doesn’t look like what he’s been through! He has life long damage of course but if you didn’t know he was in an electric accident you wouldn’t be able to tell but just looking at his face. !

[@googane7755]

Fuck, I remember when I was 8 or 9 I was holding a lamp post and a metal fence trying to just mess around and then I felt the current passing through my body which I still have no idea how that managed to do so but this video is very accurate, I could not let go of my hands, my chest and the back of my head started to hurt and I couldn't breathe or speak at all. How I did manage to escape was that I slid down unintentionally as I was being electrocuted. I used my entire weight to fall vertically until my hand on the fence hit the floor which it released my hand. A large bump appeared on my left hand and I showed it to my parents, they said stuff like this happen to them all the time and that made me feel like shit... But you never really get to appreciate life until you come close to death.

[@95TurboSol]

Geez dude, glad you made it through that!

[@neutronstar6739]

That's a tip..fall vertically if you can't let go..thx

[@nomnom5218]

Bold Erdene I fell on the electric fence while riding my bicycle I think I was 10 years old. The current flows over my body.

[@HitmanHimself]

ElectroBOOM has entered the chat!

[@beanapprentice1687]

I think he would approve of this video

[@swan.avalon7902]

💀this is the best comment ever

[@walalang7744]

Where?

[@jorgegordillo7078]

That dude is really funny

[@Texas_bikes66]

DA RECTIFIYA

[@BC-wj8fx]

It's like asking "What kills you, the 100 metre fall or the sudden deceleration at the ground?". Well the ground would not have a deadly deceleration if it weren't for the great height of the fall. And the height of the fall wouldn't kill you if it weren't for the ground. Now how would you be best to warn other people as to what is deadly: do you warn them to not fall off high places, or do you warn them to not be suddenly decelerated by the ground? Obviously it's the high voltage that's dangerous because it's the only thing that can drive high enough current.

[@stevemerritt2721]

on that last sentence, the amount of current depends on voltage and RESISTANCE

[@jamesjesus1828]

Amperage can't get high with low voltage, but even 100,000 volts wouldn't hurt you at a low amperage. Amperage isn't when you hit the ground, it's the speed you reach while falling. Warn people not to fall from high places, unless they have a parachute.

[@RimstarOrg]

The saying goes "It's not the volts that kills you, it's the amps." My latest video explains how it's not quite so simple. The volts moves the amps while your skin's resistance plays a part too.

[@WouterTomme]

Tnx for the interesting visual presentation RimstarOrg . It really proves the saying because it *is* the Amps that kills. It's just so that their would never be any current if no Voltage is applied or the resistance is too high to let the Amps pass through.

[@jonsanford0]

Good

[@SlavaPetrov]

Great video. Thank you, RimstarOrg for sharing.

[@HeilmanHackatronics]

Nice video, I tried to make a video about this with a hotdog, a car battery, and a wall outlet.

[@MongrelShark]

Well done. Very well explained.

[@jedisenpei855]

It is neither the Amps or the Volts that kills you. It is the Watts. I*U=(Q/sec)(J/Q)=J/sec =W . Or the energy if you like E = W*t .

[@deang5622]

This is wrong. Because with your theory only the watts matter and that is false. You need a minimum voltage to kill too. And it is generally accepted that anything above 50 volts AC RMS is enough to kill.

[@jedisenpei855]

​@@deang5622 It is not wrong. Electrical engineer speaking. The 50V AC RMS is a general safety rule, that applies when your are working with electricity of the mains. It is because 50V AC RMS will make your muscles cramp and make you hold on to the source for too long if it is not interrupted. High voltage means high current. U = R*I .... Remember? But if it only last a few micro/milli seconds, then you might be okay after all. That is why people survives lightning strikes ( transient time measured in a few ms), which is very high voltages and very high currents. Same with static electricity. Very high voltage and current, but the charge is low, and therefore very short transient time. It hurts, but you will be okay. The energy is low. You can touch a 5000V electrical fence and be okay, because the voltage and current is given in short pulses of a few ms, but it hurts. It is the energy that matters. Watts are defined as energy pr. second. If the watts are high, the amount of time you can withstand the power without dying is lower.

[@unouno4211]

@@deang5622 also, watts are defined as difference of potential times current, so if either of the two is zero it makes sense you risk zero.

[@deang5622]

@@jedisenpei855 I am not wrong. You confirmed exactly what I said that a minimum of 50 volts is needed. And you said that 50 volts is a general rule of thumb. But here you are wrong. Which is surprising that given you are an electrical engineer. The 50 volts minimum is the voltage that is required in order to develop enough current to cause the heart to stop beating properly (heart goes into ventricular fibrillation). The body has resistance and therefore a minimum voltage is required to produce enough current to cause VF. So the idea it is a general rule of thumb and that say 5 volts and enough power integrated over time is sufficient to cause the heart to stop is, quite frankly complete rubbish. Think it through, you are the electrical engineer after all. According to research I have done a current of 75mA across the heart is required to cause VF. It is true however that the higher the current the less time is required to cause the heart to stop, but that minimum current is still required. So you don't cause the heart to stop by delivering 35mA for 5 minutes, which is what you are stating. So you are incorrect when you say it is simply the total energy, the integral of power with respect to time. Go do some research on this and you will discover that is not simply power. In all the papers and articles I have read on this, even medical papers, they talk in terms of current, not power. Why? It's obvious. It is the current that is important. Power includes voltage and the only purpose of the voltage is to deliver enough current to cause the heart to stop. So if people talk about power being what causes electrocution then they will start to believe that say 5kW causes electrocution, but firstly it might not because the voltage is not high enough, and second people will confuse the power in the load with the power rating the supply can deliver. Already seen that several times with KZbin users. I am disappointed in you as you are supposed to be the electrical engineer that has responded without doing the research.

[@deang5622]

Your formulae are wrong. Energy is this: E = ∫ w.dt And you are the electrical engineer? Are you sure you are?

[@YoDay]

Watched this video last year, understood little bit. Watching this year , understood a bit more. I'll come again next year and hope that I understand everything. Thanks

[@samvamsi3044]

I hope you'll stay alive till then

[@YoDay]

@@samvamsi3044 thanks for your hope.

[@Gizmos_and_stuff]

i touched a bug zapper, those are several hundred to a thousand ish volts. It gave me a little zap I touched parts of a vacuum tube circuit (couple hundred volts, IDK if it was AC or DC), much less voltage but still enough to have me shaken for a while. Also had sweaty hands overall i concluded that i should be more careful around live circuitry, very educational

[@30Xa]

The only person that can’t die from amps and volts is electroboon

[@ragingwarrior567]

This video is so good that I didn't realize it was 10y old untill I saw the description

[@wickedbird1538]

😮😮As a child, I grabbed a pole that had electrical going through it. It hurt, I screamed and could not let go. Fortunately my grandfather shut down the power and I survived. I don’t care which it was, I still remember the pain decades later.

[@lifeofmarlean]

same

[@cryptfire3158]

i can't hardly imagine hanging onto something while wanting to let go.

[@andycopeland7051]

I'm an electrician and I hear know-it-alls argue about this question all the time. It's stupid. "When you fall from the top of a building is it hitting the ground that kills you or is it your body breaking that kills you?" Just two elements of the same damn thing

[@byteme9718]

I certainly hope you're not an electrician.

[@cryptfire3158]

How would you use your same example to represent a (low amp /high volt).. that hurts but doesn't kill.. compared to the opposite, which would be (higher amp /very low volt) that can hurt but not kill. So how would you fit that back into your example? Think your example needs some tweeking.

[@gabeshaw3721]

Stupid question. When you get in a car accident, is it the force or the acceleration that kills you? The answer is both, as the two are related and cannot exist without one another

[@MemeHut1000]

I know there's 1 km but there's 1000m you cannot go further without another

[@deadspeedv]

Force = mass x acceleration Voltage = Current x resistance Yep the maths check out

[@nasen2727]

Why is this video suddenly getting lots of views after 8 years on KZbin ?

[@RimstarOrg]

It's not sudden. This video surges in views every few months, though the last time it was this high was Feb 2017.

[@Anonymous82819]

​@@RimstarOrgnow in September 2024 😊

[@Atticus500]

When I was a kid my dad had some car starter thing that was in our basement. It said it went up to 800 amps. And I played around with it stupidly and almost killed my self and almost burned down the house. Lucky my parents never found out but I learn a valuable lesson that day.

[@TomPauls007]

This is quite easy to explain. It is the amount of joules (electron volume) that cross your heart. It takes voltage (electron push) to get the electron volume (measured in amperes) to get through the body to the heart. 12V from your car battery does not provide the push to overcome your body resistance so enough current passes your heart. Over 100V, now things get dicey (a path from one hand to the other). There are other factors, but this is the basic.

[@jamierapp8060]

I'm an industrial electrician at a steel mill. Once we had to run a temporary 480V feed after a big fire. Contractors, ignorant of the danger, moved the power cable & even drove over it with trailers & vac trucks. Danger tape somehow wasn't a meaningful enough warning. We had enough, & put up a sign stating "This 480-Volt cable will kill you, & it will hurt like hell the whole time you are dying." Didnt get moved again.

[@ezrabrooks7785]

Sounds like something Larry would do.

[@hanksnow5470]

the cleaning people used to step on electrical equipment in my lab at work, so I put up a sign saying "danger, 100,000 ohms"! the problem stopped.

[@profH-z6k]

The question is like, if you fall from a high place, is the impact speed to the ground that kills you or the height of the place. The answer is of course the impact speed but it is the height that gives you the speed.

[@tamaica7770]

Truth lol. Voltage is the difference, that’s what I studied. More difference more change, so you know the answer!

[@joeycarr1398]

A friend of mine was killed by a live power line on the road he did not see after a storm knocked the line down. He died while helping others in that emergency. RIP

[@danryan4001]

Twenty thousand volts and no amperage off the picture tube of an older TV will throw you ten feet through the air and leave you ravenously hungry., but I was still alive.

[@boah9520]

Woah! So basically when you touched it you completed the cycle huh? Connect it to ground and voltage gave amperage the green to go and since it was a lot of voltage it was so strong it pushed you back 10ft. Correct me if I’m wrong

[@danryan4001]

@@boah9520 At those voltages, no circuit is required, capacitive discharge off the picture tube anode does what I described. Full body muscle contraction and I was airborne for ten feet. I touched the big red wire that you aren't supposed to touch. It was early in my career and as is usually the case, I was young and stupid. The sting as usual with humans, made the lesson stick for life.

[@anotherelvis]

The voltage from a power supply is not constant over time. When you start drawing a current, then the voltage will typically fall. So the initial voltage doesn't kill you, but the ability to deliver a high current at a high voltage kills you.

[@mikeduffey3082]

I was caught by 1600 volts @ 25 amps 3 phase, heart and breathing stopped, I was given less than 1% chance of survival. Spent time in burn intensive care, 4th degree burns, permanently disabled. This video makes it sound clinical, like a math problem, the pain is indescribable. Electrocution is the most painful injury, and means of execution there is!

[@kumd]

What happened? Holy hell

[@BogdanOfficalPage]

saying it’s the current that kills you, not the voltage is like saying “it’s not the gun that kills you, it’s the bullets” lol Volts are needed to overcome the resistance and carry the charge

[@alibabaintelligence8281]

great analogy

[@zackwalker1789]

So both are needed. A gun without bullets doesn't kill and neither does a bullet without a gun

[@smb1397]

the charge is _because_ of the volts. Ohm's law?? V = IR? charge is nothing but volts / resistance and the volts are nothing but charge * resistance. household circuits are in parallel, which means the voltage stays constant, and the current changes depending on the resistance, but if they were in series its the current that would stay const. and the voltage would vary and we'd be talking abt household power in amps instead

[@smb1397]

@@zackwalker1789 there is no gun without the bullets and vice versa cause V = IR

[@PJSM94]

Styropyro did a great video on this just recently and used himself as a guinea pig. Every variable matters, especially frequency and time of exposure. People who say "amps kill" are grossly misguided/misunderstanding something.

[@jacko2131]

In summary: Do volts or amps kill you? Answer: Yes

[@superancient]

Finally someone who can use this joke template properly!

[@martinvaughan5953]

Its the power disappates in watts that kills you - Power=volts*current, current=V/r and power= volts*volts/resistance

[@WXUZT]

🎯👌🏼 Many Experts Just don't get it ! It's the Power of the applied Voltage translating into Current. The work done is Voltage multiplied by Current . How high this Product is what matters !

[@martinvaughan5953]

@WXUZT and finally, the duration of the applied voltage, a further factor

[@nicholashartmann4525]

I get what you mean but I think you can't really say it like that. High power (work, watts) is a result OF potential difference and current, which in turn are results of each other and resistance. If you have a certain resistance then increasing the voltage will allow more amperage. The result of both of these is death and power (or work or watts), but I find it difficult to say that power is the result of the death. Though thinking a bit deeper you could say voltage and amperage are in turn caused by work (or power, expressed in watts) being put into creating them so technically the electric company is at fault of your death :)

[@ibimsbot6828]

Hi, soon to be paramedic and med student from Germany here (so excuse my English). As it happens I am also a physics and maths fan. I would like to add my view on this topic as well, cause I think the answer to this question, as it is the case for many questions, is not at all simple. To dive right in, firstly, it is neither any of the mentioned physical phenomena leading to death but rather medical conditions caused by these phenomena. As it turns out there are many possibilities and morbidities associated with electrical emergencies. The most important ones being: Something which loosely translates to “inhalation trauma”. This is something we usually find on patients with 20% or more burned skin (burned skin being caused by electricity) and it has something to do with your airway. In short you can actually suffocate because of an electrical emergency, cause your lungs simply cannot exchange anymore oxygen. Secondly, large areas of burned skin can lead to other serious complications with your circulation and body temperature management. Patients loose a lot of fluid which leads to hypovolemia (not enough blood volume) and death. Or patients simply dissipate heat a lot more quicker cause the skin is not able to act as a protection layer anymore. Hypothermia is a cause of death. It is also very important to consider organ damage on patients through which electricity has passed. Organs can be a very good conductor of electricity and therefore if the current passes through the body the right way, your internal organs can quite literally be fried. Depending on the fried organs, death can occur immediately or remain unnoticed for periods up to days after the actual incident. These complications all depend on how much energy has passed through the body and over which volume it has been spread. Energy, physically is the product of Power times time. So your exposure time is also of vital importance. Power is the product of voltage times current. And current itself is voltage divided by resistance. So Energy depends on the voltage squared times time divided by resistance. Resistance of course can change as mentioned in the video or might change depending on which way the current takes through the body. According to our formula more time and voltage and less resistance means more energy. However if the current chooses to pass through your chest, where organs like the heart or the muscles for breathing are located. Than it is current that kills you. Enough current paralyses the muscles and can interfere with the electrical signals of your heart, leading to death. The latter is also why frequency kills. There is a certain range of frequencies which are especially harmful to the heart cause they resemble the frequency at which the heart produces its own electrical signals. But is it really the current that kills. If we look at the physics, it is also rather the voltage that kills you. Cause current is voltage divided by resistance. I think a good analogy is thinking of voltage as the engine and current as the speed. If your car is heavier (resistance) you need more engine power to drive at the same speed. So really it is always the combination of voltage and resistance that leads to current. So in the end the answer to the question is much more difficult than just saying: Volts or Amps? I hope I have given you little insight into the pathological consequences of incidents with electricity. And also here, I could go on and on about more ways in which electricity might kill you but I think I came up with the most common ones. Cheers guys!

[@noslohcinkin]

Many people are confused by these basic electrical concepts, probably because electricity can't be seen as it travels within a body or a cable. I think it helps to understand voltage by analogy with pressure in a fluid circuit and current with flow. A greater pressure difference will cause a greater flow. Resistance can be understood by analogy with greater or lesser diameter of tubing in the fluid circuit, less diameter= more restriction=more resistance. Voltage is cause, current is effect. To say volts don't kill, it's amps, is a bit like saying the drop from a skyscraper doesn't kill you, it's the sudden stop at the bottom, or maybe better, it's not the guy who pulls the trigger who kills you, it's the bullet. Also, many people think if a cable is rated (capable of handling without fusing or overheating) at 20 Amperes or Amps then that's the current that is flowing in your body when you touch it. It's not. The current that flows is the potential difference ie voltage across the two points of contact eg left hand and right hand divided by the resistance between those two points. I've had a 500 volt DC hit, and a 440 volt AC hit, but the one in the defective Brazilian shower, naked with wet body was nasty, and that was 110 volt AC. Burnt a hole in my finger. Obviously a huge difference in skin resistance. I don't like the use of the word "draw" or even "take" to describe the passage of circuit through a circuit. Remember the circuit is passive; it is obliged to allow the current to pass, as it is forced to do so by the voltage applied to it; it's not actively pulling the current through itself. Your videos are a model of clarity and conciseness. Thanks, RimstarOrg.

[@RimstarOrg]

noslohcinkin Thanks, and thanks for your input. I try to stay away from analogies in my videos because I have animation and can actually show moving electrons, but voltage is more difficult to draw. I tried the two arms with different voltages represented by different muscle strengths so that I could get in the energy-per-charge idea, but it was probably overkill here. I use the water and pressure analogy a lot when speaking to people and in my solar power classes. Regarding the volts versus amps that kill you, in hindsight it would have been good if I ended the video saying something like "so in conclusion, it's a trick question since it's both the volts and amps that kill you." Too bad people can't comment before I release videos, then I can address problems better that way! :)

[@Keimotorider]

+RimstarOrg you can still add annotations right?

[@RimstarOrg]

Amirul Saipulovich Syafiq Actually, I didn't think there was any good place to put it, but looking again just now I realized I can put it at the beginning.

[@Dieselpower994]

Take it from someone who got electrocuted, it’s no fun. I’m an electrician and stupidly enough while at work I thought I turned off power and never checked to make sure. I got locked on while working on the circuit for about 20-30 seconds. Thankfully I was finally able to scream and someone saved me. Ended up with 3rd degree burns on my left hand, and almost lost my 2 middle fingers. Don’t be me, always double check

[@jackqin9699]

It is energy that kills you. Energy ＝ Voltage X Current X Time.

[@112sandeepnaradasu9]

Which one kills you jumping from a high building or contact with the ground floor impact ? Ans: impact is more when jumped from high building and depends on floor nature so on both i.e energy acquired that disrupts the body

[@meusana3681]

Before watching. That's like asking: does speed kill you or the fact that you weigh something in a crash? If you were a feather then any crash would be soft, if you travel slowly same applies. It's momentum that gets you, the effect of both of those factors working proportionally. If you were to make a mechanical analog to an electrical system, voltage would be speed of a rotating part, amperage would be it's weight. Total power delivered is speed of rotation x weight = angular momentum, also measured in joules.

[@SNGiraffe]

To sum up: ENERGY kills you: voltage x current x time

[@Dieg0Restrep0]

At the end, it is energy what gets you killed: Power = Voltage . Current = Current² . Impedance = Voltage² / Impedance Energy = Power . Time If your body can't safely dissipate all the energy of the resulting electric shock, it will generate burns, muscle shaking / paralysis, ventricular fibrillation, damage in multiple organs and other awful injuries.

[@dougmorris2134]

The UK 🇬🇧 version that I know to be correct is: “ it’s the Volts that jolts, but the Mills (mA) that KILLS”! Best wishes from Oxfordshire 🇬🇧

[@FLORIDIANMILLIONAIRE]

I was just in Oxfordshire isn't it the place where Midsomer murders is filmed ?

[@akupehsluarketatAR]

when i was a kid i used to stick my finger into a lamp holder then turn on the supply and get a nasty shock with burn marks on my finger. Im now an electrician

[@glassofmilk7141]

I never got a shock, it was more like a weird wavy feeling

[@rocklee8929]

It’s like asking what kills you the bullet or the gun? They coincide so much that you need both

[@jamesjesus1828]

A bullet would kill you from 30 feet away. Now imagine it's underwater. With enough resistance, voltage doesn't do much.

[@jag12549]

This is The most Concise and well stated video on how electricity works and how people are able to work with it. Thank you so much for just laying it out plain and simple

[@oldmangranny5oldmangranny56]

Amps = bullet volts = gunpowder ohms = armor Got it!

[@MondoDook817]

oldmangranny5 oldmangranny5 very good description , thanks !

[@oldmangranny5oldmangranny56]

@@MondoDook817 :-)

[@michaelhenwood4046]

I might add"Watts=hole".

[@PianoImprov.rjgc1991]

Both. Volts to be able to cross the high resistance distance and amps to be able to make a large enough electrical change

[@kaischreurs2488]

"it's not the volts that kill you it's the amps" "it's not the gun that kills you it's the bullet"

[@techsinc]

It’s the power delivered to you which is voltage x current. Because of Ohm’s law, your body’s resistance means reasonably high voltage is needed to cause a reasonably high current, thus if a high current can flow, voltage is necessarily reasonably high, and the resulting power (delivered to body) is high.

[@princenoah21]

Voltage dictates how many amps are ABLE to flow through your body, so Voltage DOES kill! End of discussion.

[@Muck-qy2oo]

It is the amount of current over time which kills. So it is amperage that kills. But without voltage there is no current. So you need an initial condition which is the difference in potential. With short pulses of DC it is not even the current that kills. It is the charge only determining the stimulus strength.

[@davynolan182]

It's kind of like asking what kills you, the bullet or the gun. The answer is neither or both. The gun and shell is voltage and the bullet is the amps, Resistance can be thought of as the air between you and your target, a high resistance is like shooting through syrup, it's going to take a lot of energy out of the bullet.

[@ztheletter5296]

You can't have amps without volts so both are a part of the equation but amps kill. The level is the determining factor and whether it is AC or DC is also a factor. As a rule, anything above 10 milliamps can kill. That is why hospitals and critical infrastructure sets earth leakage devices at 10 milliamps but in general use the level is set at 30 milliamps. Amperage above 1 amp tends to burn. Still, it is not a good scenario whatever the amps. I used to teach this stuff in my capacity for Electrical compliance for Rio Tinto at their induction processes.

[@nostro1940]

An useful analogy would be a gun's bullet & it's powder cartridge Bullet: 🅰️mps Powder: ⚡ voltage ⚡

[@jaqueknight6625]

Bullet proof vest: 😎 Resistance 😎

[@pamino3674]

At the end of the day it's actually the human that pulls the trigger or makes the 230v socket that is the actual reason why you got amps or a bullet flowing through your heart

[@CrowdContr0l]

Electrons are not moving down the wire carrying electricity. The electrons are the medium in which the electricity flows. It’s like saying shining a light through a pope filled with water means the water must be moving since the light comes out the other side. And in fact the electricity is not flowing through the wire but through a field around the wire.

[@nicholashartmann4525]

Yeah I like this. But, and correct me if I'm wrong, while electricity (eg. the energy itself) is not transported by the electrons, the electrons do still move back and forth in AC, or considering DC as in the video, are moved through the circuit. I mean, a battery is literally an excess electrons on one side and therefore a deficit electrons on the other side. If you have a tube filled with marbles and you push a new marble into it, the kinetic energy will reach the end immediately (or more accurately at whatever velocity the speed of sound is for that material) while the movement of the marbles themselves in the tube is quite small and slow. But they do still move. So in the example of the video what he says is still correct. Hes talking about current, not energy, "moving", although to be fair current is the movement, he should be saying electrons are moving, or rather being pushed. To sum up though, I find your statement somewhat misleading. You say electrons are not flowing down a wire carrying electricity when you should probably be saying electrons arent carrying electricity down a wire while moving through it.

[@MakkaPakka7999]

Example: your fist is amps and your arms are voltage, if you hit someone with little power it will hurt less, but if you hit them with full force, it will probably hurt a lot more.

[@princenoah21]

I've been told a sadistic way of remembering, is that how many times you punch someone in 1 second is Amps, and voltage is how hard you punch.

[@sanjaybhatikar]

Imagine a 3 Volt differential. I add one LED across. It drains 20 mA. Total current in the circuit is 20 mA. I add another LED in parallel. It drains another 20 mA. Total current is now 20 mA + 20 mA = 40 mA. I add another LED and another and another. When I have added a very large number of LEDs in parallel, I have a very large current. Theoretically, an infinite number of LEDs means an infinitely large current. Now when I touch the 3V bar, will it kill me? No! I will draw a small current which is 3V divided by my body's resistance. Voltage is the murderer. Current is the knife.

[@LeoH3L1]

Strictly speaking volts, because ultimately that's all there really is, current is a RESULT of a voltage being present across something, without that no current will be driven, so which ever you want to say kills you it's still the voltage being applied that is responsible. You can have a voltage without a current flowing, that's called an open circuit, but you can't have a current flow in a circuit if there isn't a voltage there to begin with, and depending on the resistance in the circuit you could have a high current if you have a low resistance, and if you have a high resistance you get a low current. Example 1, if you have a voltage of 230v present across say a 1,000,000 ohm resistor you will get a 0.23mA flow, you'd survive that if you were part of that circuit, you'd not even feel it. Example 2, same voltage, across 100ohm, you get a 2.3A flow, you're now dead, but only if the circuit is a high energy circuit, in other words if the supply can maintain 230v at 2.3A, eg a mains supply, if it can't then that voltage will almost instantly drop to a much lower level, driving much less current, and you may survive. Example 3, HV, let's say 11kv, and you are part of a circuit and the circuit has a total resistance of 100,000 (typical human skin resistance value), this will very likely kill you, in several ways, firstly it works out to 0.11A, which is over 3 times more than needed to stop your heart, it is also enough to cause very bad electrical burns. Example 4, let's say you touch a capacitor, that cap has a voltage of 27kv (noticed it in a comment below) you touch it, and it discharges through you, the chances are you will be fine, it'll probably hurt, but because it is a LOW energy circuit, ie it can't maintain that 27kv when in a short circuit condition, that voltage is pretty much instantly gone, so the current flows only fast for a miniscule amount of time, not enough to do damage, enough to feel it, but that's about it. The main point I am getting at is that it is always a result of a voltage being applied to you, the current is a secondary effect of that determined by the resistance, and the energy of the supply, ie can it maintain that voltage long enough while driving the current it is trying to drive in order to harm or kill you. To prove the point that it is ultimately voltage that is what you should be concerned with, when you test a circuit to see if it is dead, during an isolation proceedure, you are looking for any present voltages, if you find none, then you know it is safe to work on, assuming you properly isolate it and lock it off.

[@Capt182]

Leon Hostad Well said. You should be a teacher.

[@LeoH3L1]

@@Capt182 Thanks, funnily enough I have considered going into education.

[@phucminhnguyenle250]

Yes, finally someone who realize that the voltage can drop. I've seen people who confidently they can stand very high voltage without realizing that the voltage they talked about was in open circuit condition. What was applied upon them depended much on the source internal resistance and also the power source capacity

[@LeoH3L1]

@@phucminhnguyenle250 Thank you :)

[@nottsoserious]

Saying "the voltage doesn't kill you" is like saying that "my pump action shotgun doesnt kill you as long as the bullets hit you very slowly. Wanna try?" - Electroboom

[@GoogleUser_MCMLIX]

If the bullet's path offers high resistance, (say a strong magnetic tube & metal bullets) which reduces the speed and hits you very slowly...

[@PepsiMaxVanilla]

very softly*

[@Lanuzos]

@@GoogleUser_MCMLIXor if you were to run at hypersonic speed to the point of the relative velocity of the pellets hitting you is 5mp/h.

[@viewererdos]

*Voltage is like height, which by itself cannot be the cause of death, and current is like a fall, in which height (voltage) will be a significant factor.*

[@jayawilder3835]

Best analogy in the comments.

[@knockerz9769]

Thank you, very informative! I'm an engineering student and I've already heard some of these terms before but your video helped me understand better the roles of current and voltage in the flow of electricity

[@voicevy3210]

current is a symptom, voltage is the cause

[@vikramraj9539]

It is the energy ( energy = current × volatage × time ) which kills . More is the energy dumped more will be chances of casualties . Because energy that is supplied has to be consumed so it will be used to vaporise your body cells , contract and expand your muscles repeatedly , interfere with nervous system and ultimately converting into heat.

[@frankjohannessen6383]

It's like asking if it's the velocity or the height that kills you in a fall.

[@nicholashartmann4525]

Ok this is a nice video imho. It's on a fairly high level so more people will understand, while staying fairly accurate during the analogies. Edit: As I have been informed he is talking about dialectic breakdown. A really fascinating subject for anyone interested I also didn't know about. But I do have one issue. Resistance doesn't decrease by increasing voltage. Resistance is a fixed property of a material. Current and Voltage are the variable parts. But I'm sure you know that, so speaking to anyone confused by this: A higher voltage will over more pressure to overcome the fixed resistance value, therefore increasing the current through the body. The result is the same though of course.

[@khalidh5933]

He was talking about dielectric breakdown, where an insulator suddenly breaks down at high voltage and becomes a conductor. It's strange that he brought this up. It's not really relevant because you don't need 450-600 volts to experience the big die.

[@nicholashartmann4525]

@@khalidh5933 aaaaah I didn't think about that. That's something I need to inform myself about more then. Thank you for pointing that out, I always like being corrected in a constructive manor.

[@yolo3004]

as someone else mentioned, he's talking about dielectric breakdown. But resistors in general don't always have a constant resistance. for example, they are dependent by heat, some by voltage (varistors) etc.

[@nicholashartmann4525]

@@yolo3004 Yes I'm aware of that, thank you :)

[@TheRealbenjibits]

@@nicholashartmann4525You cannot definitively say voltage or current. Metrics for the lethality of current utilize time as a major component. Static shocks generate loads of voltage and current, but don’t kill due to the short duration. Frequency plays a large part considering higher frequencies are generally safer than lower frequencies. Our bodies are capacitors and higher frequencies result in a higher impedance of said capacitor.

[@randmayfield5695]

I am here to tell you that when I was 4 years old and stuck a paperclip into a wall socket that was my first lesson with electricity. I never did that again and at 68 years old still remember it vividly. Lol

[@RyanEmeryLovesCars]

I have an electric bug zapper. Upon releasing a button it turns off. I touched the metal mesh after 2 seconds and it really hurt. For a moment my muscles tensed up and I couldn't let go. For the next minute my skin was tingling. I think it's powered by 2 or 3 D-type batteries. Electricity isn't to be played with. It can hurt you.

[@merlin5476]

Ryan emery.... after releasing the button you will still have an electrical charge stored in the Capacitors inside your zapper. It will take a while for the energy to deplete.... so watch out.

[@PaperBoat.]

Expert: Volts or Amps Kills You? Me: Electricity bill...

[@nirmalakumari6224]

😂😂

[@Earthneedsado-over177]

That Funny.

[@beardymcbeardface69]

This was refreshing. Working in electronics, I heard so many times that tired old saying, _"it's_ _not_ _the_ _volts_ _that_ _kills_ _you,_ _it's_ _the_ _amps",_ as if voltage plays no role! Maybe those people think that Ohms law is not obeyed within the human body!

[@trumanhw]

I'm an electricity ignoramus. (just familiar with the V, I, R, P formula // calculations.) I was always confused that watts played no role. 2 amps @ even 0.00001 volts (& thus watts) are lethal? I was also tired of the water-analogy ... largely bc I distrusted it. This video was MUCH more candid and knowledgeable...

[@andrewmurphy5310]

5 minutes later I still don't know

[@richardhemingway6084]

For simple electric knowledge, I like the water analogy. Voltage = the pressure Amperes = the flow Resistance = the size of the pipe, or restrictions in it. You could have water in a huge, tall tank, with lots of pressure at the bottom. If you put a pin hole in it (high resistance) it would squirt out, but take ages to fill a bath. You could punch a large hole in it (low resistance) and it would not only fill the bath, but blow it away.

[@undercoverboss543]

@@richardhemingway6084 what the hell does this mean

[@richardhemingway6084]

@@undercoverboss543 People who do not understand electricity have real problems with the correlation between Volts, Amps, Watts and Resistance. Sometimes the only way to get your head around it, is to compare with something more familiar. Hence the water analogy. I take it you are still confused?

[@MrMineHeads.]

Thank you. God it is annoying to explain to people that "current is the one that kills" isn't the full picture. They would see a video of a power supply at 1 V melting an iron bar and say that it was the current that did that. While true, holding the leads to that power supply yourself won't hurt you one bit.

[@RimstarOrg]

Yup, you got it too. The answer to the question of this video is that it depends on a number of factors.

[@elonyemp3029]

Volts commands amps to kill you

[@Gizmos_and_stuff]

i like this

[@Mabere-r4t]

Thanks for making this video. It's very educative.

[@jcudjoe36]

At age 12 i tried to recharge a battery by pluging up a 2 corded wire i cut from a broken fan and attaching one to the positive side and another to the negative side and i got a shock of a lifetime. I used my left hand and that shock dazed my left eye for a second. I haven't seen the world the same since.

[@windsofmarchjourneyperrytr2823]

John Kwaku you cpukd have saved some time by reading Steven King's story about this in "On Writing." They managed to wipe out a transformer and nobody died. Shocking. Haha

[@OhYeaMista]

Saying amps kill not volts is like saying bullets kill, not guns. Technically yes, but the bullet isn’t doing anything without the gun.

[@RimstarOrg]

Yup, it's a trick question since there's no either/or answer.

[@ElectrcRadiation]

It always annoyed me when people talked about that saying. Everytime I said the saying is missleading and they never believe me. Hopefully they watch this video.

[@gvenagas]

In my opinion: In direct current what kills is the voltage in combination with the resistance, since voltage by itself does not exist and the power of the source (how many amperes can the source tolerate before the voltage sinks) In alternating current, all the above apply to direct current, but also the frequency that determines the impedance. It is also the exposure time of the person to the electricity

[@pickles3128]

This is an odd story but, having one too many beers and trying to rewire a lamp, I gave myself a bad shock. I temporarily lost my sense of smell for a few days. Happened years ago.

[@TObbhballer]

Pickles you were supposed to say here hold my beer first...

[@FDJT-sj7id]

About 40 years ago, I used to have a dune buggy that I drove around town. As an “anti-theft” device, I would pull the coil wire off the distributor so the car would crank over, but not fire up. To make it look like everything was in place (and to keep from having to drag a dirty coil wire around when I left the car) I’d just pull the wire out of the socket, but make it look like everything was hooked up. I remember once I hopped back in the car and started it without remembering to push the coil wire back in place. (Obviously I hadn’t pulled it out far enough) but I thought that driving the car might bounce it off and stop the car. I grabbed the wire with the intent of just pushing it down into the distributor a bit. The shock knocked me back pretty hard, but it didn’t knock me down. That car had a really hot coil because the motor had been extensively modded. I don’t remember the voltage, but it was probably around 40,000-50,000. I’m still here today, so that’s my scientific proof that it’s not the volts.

[@Gizmos_and_stuff]

yeah, those coils carry miniscule amounts of amperage i think, but enough voltage to give a nasty zap

[@JimmyMakingitwork]

Every time I get zapped at work by an ignition coil I am grateful they flow low amperage. Thousands of volts and low amps equals a surprise, but not death. I suppose it might be more accurate to express the danger in watts vs resistance?

[@Lukas-cf6gy]

Me too

[@Bretaxy]

The voltage wasn’t high at that point

[@primitivochapa5877]

Yeah hurts though

[@sammylacks4937]

I know the feeling. Get zapped by a spark plug wire or a faulty kill switch on an outboard motor. It won't kill you but it will get your attention in a hurry.

[@jaccos622]

A difference in electric potential between two points is what we call voltage. You can have voltage between two points but no current. If you apply any sort of resistence to the circuit, you'll get a current according to Ohm's law for DC , U = RI. Basically, the voltage makes the current flow through a circuit. The current is the killing part but the current whould never exist without a voltage (and resistence).

[@tedlahm5740]

Can not dispute.

[@beerbandit291]

Does this explain the current state of the ohmless on our streets?

[@niko1even]

im not sure whether to laugh or not xD

[@ralphmarlow3945]

potentially could

[@randomdude9135]

They need to reVOLT to get ohms

[@jaybee3165]

idle hands make trouble. arrest them for vagrancy... put them in a halfway house & make their sentence be to work with a state crew cleaning up under the bridges that they spread trash, poop & piss under. no more idle hands... give them lunch ticket vouchers to use at the 'feed the homeless' food servers... and just enough left over cash to buy cigarettes & booze so they can self medicate & forget that making all those bad life choices at a young age was a bad idea.

[@gabecooper8408]

My cousin was in a band and his gear fell on top of him and I can definitely confirm it was the amp that killed him

[@lukastanic4350]

The only right answer is that current that flows through your body kills you, the current which is the consequence of your body being exposed to high voltage. But there is one thing many people giving explanations skip, and it is the frequency of that voltage. The higher the frequency, your body can be exposed to higher voltage. That is the reason why you can touch several hundered THOUSAND volts of very high frequency and not feeling anything and on contrary touching dc voltage or low frequency voltage of severela hundered volts can easily kill you. At higher frequency your body resistance (or impedance to be more precise) is higher and the current that flows through your body is lower keeping the same voltage level that your body is exposed to. It is known as skin effect, that the high frequency current is going thorugh your skin, rather than through blood system which keeps increase the resistance of current path and lowers its intensity.

[@Narrowgaugefilms]

From "Running Scared" Try not to scrape the third rail, OK? There's about 600 volts in there. It's not the voltage that kills you. It's the amps. How many amps are there? Enough to run a TRAIN!

[@nojiratzlaff4388]

You're on the right track! Yes, you need both (enough) volts and (enough) amps to result in (enough) power (P = I x E) to start the job, but as you hinted at, that power (Joules = Watts x Seconds) needs to be applied (long enough), to actually cause damage. So, what kills? It's *energy* that kills you.

[@davidsanders6957]

Shocking, isn't it ?!!

[@AmanGupta-wu6ml]

I wanna know how do they know these values precisely. Who volunteered?

[@blueberry1c2]

ElectroBOOM

[@jean-pierreboies9749]

With high current, probably from cadavers and accidents.

[@taramaforhaikido7272]

@@EnchantedConsumerBeing As well as electric chair executions Think they fry them for nothing? I bet the cold blooded killers (and cops murdering the unarmed are murderers IMO) get data to use for such things. Leathal injection dara will be collected too. Morbid isn't it?

[@wenomechainsama6940]

@@EnchantedConsumerBeing 87

[@Exachad]

The current that flows through the body is entirely dependent on the voltage and resistance. Any internal resistance of power source is tiny compared to your body's resistance. The maximum amperage that can be supplied by even a tiny AA battery is enough to kill you, so neither of those two things limit the maximum current flow. Thus, the only factors that determine current flow are the voltage of the power source and your body's resistance.

[@burnstick1380]

instead of saying it depends on the voltage and resistance you can simplify it and say it depends on the amps. U = R * I

[@yanzhuozhoo]

voltage is the potential difference that drives charges to move. when charges pass through material, energy is passed on to the medium. that energy causes damage to biological tissue.

[@This0is0pointless]

youtube is better than school...

[@AllLoudNation365]

Agreed 💯

[@Ridingthewaves305]

My friend once injured my fist with his face, Newtons laws would agree that he assaulted me

[@Remon_]

And accordingly you assaulted him.

[@TheMathias95]

According to his frame of reference, you in fact dove straight into his fist

[@Tismitch]

After a while of looking through a lot of contradicting information I realised there is a pattern: voltage from power source Vs. amps across your body. Almost like people are arguing from two different perspectives of the same situation, not realising that they are arguing two sides of the same coin. Many arguments that say that voltage is what kills are pretty much saying exactly what arguments for amps being the killer says. Enough voltage to overcome inherent resistance will kill if there is enough current from the power source. A static shock, even if it can be in the kV range, doesn't have the current to do real damage (all available amps are pushed through) while low voltage and high amps would also not have enough current to do much damage in most situations because there isn't enough voltage to push all those electrons through the resistance (a trickle of amps are pushed through). The main thing here is decreasing the resistance in any way makes the high amp/low voltage scenario far more dangerous while not really affecting the low amp/high voltage scenario. For safety, while it does matter how many volts you have to overcome resistance, amps is the determining factor in how much harm is done. Resistance can vary wildly from so many factors but if there aren't enough amps to matter then the end result doesn't change regardless.

[@throckmortonthebrave6634]

as an electronic engineer, I agree

[@harms123]

No. A static shock can peak in the amps. If you have high voltage and low resistance you will ALWAYS have high current. The reason a static shock doesn't kill you is because the energy is low.

[@harms123]

@@throckmortonthebrave6634 X

[@Tismitch]

@Harms yes, that is what I was saying. A static shock doesn't have much energy because the energy transfer is low because of the limited amount of electrons that can build up before the voltage is too high and there is a discharge. Static electricity can be high amps in very specific situations, like a thunderstorm where the amount of air provides huge amounts of resistance, but usually objects discharge well before enough electrons build up to have amps in a dangerous range.

[@throckmortonthebrave6634]

@@harms123 P = V x I V = I x R Yall both said the same thing

[@livingood1049]

I got hit by 13500 V when a street line got clipped and discharged into the tree that I was near... Traveled right down the trunk to the root ball. Good thing I was about 20' away. The EMT thought they were going to have to call the coroner he said while on the way.

[@garethrowlands1305]

Simple answer.. you need high voltage to be able to pass enough current through you . Don’t think to hard about it . This is why warning signs always say “warning high voltage “ 10 amps with 1 volt wouldn’t even tickle you

[@Sinnbad21]

Gareth Rowlands I’m just learning this stuff so sorry if it’s a dumb question but can 1 volt even push 10A?

[@garethrowlands1305]

Anthony Anderson of course if it is is regulated by various transformers and inverters etc 👍

[@garethrowlands1305]

A car battery can create 70amp with 12 v for example

[@Pops180]

@@Sinnbad21 if the load resistance is low enough (100mOhm)

[@darkwhitegamer5]

So I would really like to hear anyone’s thoughts on a event that took place about 3 1/2 years ago to me. I was sitting in bed after taking a shower with my headphones on and my iPhone 5 plugged in to the wall at the base of my bed. I was listening to music when I felt a tingle and saw electricity flowing up the walls. My beard head was sticking straight out, I was twitching and being pulled . I managed to take the headset off and get out of bed to find my feet pulling the carpet up . I was very freaked out by this and have been dealing with long term issues like hyper sensitivity to touch and feel and my mind feels a bit scrambled. I have to shave my head cause my hair feels like it’s stuck to my scalp under the skin. Has anyone ever heard of someone having this happen

[@sahilanower9189]

Wow man that's horrendous!!!

[@mattiassjodin8838]

Dang that sounds scary. You should see a doctor about it, or multiple if the first one doesn't know.

[@justiceprovider9822]

Sounds paranormal.

[@sanjaybhatikar]

Voltage is the murderer, Amps is the knife.

[@randomdude9135]

Smart

[@meninpapin]

Yes amps is useless without voltage

[@madhusudhanmsd1321]

It's power

[@mwolfod]

@@madhusudhanmsd1321 Yep, Wattage.

[@xpbatmanqx5535]

You deserve an award for that!!!

[@clghidra]

You addressed Hz in AC but didn't say anything about DC voltage. In the table you showed early on, do we assume the voltage values are roughly equivalent to the one shown for AC?

[@arclightelectrical8057]

12v .... Highly used

[@Krendor123]

It is much simpler: You need both. If you have only one while the other is zero, there is no power, and with no power there will be no action/reaction - neither heat nor electrolysis, etc.

[@mysterym6757]

Note, to die at maximum efficiency ensure high voltage and amperage

[@Oscar4u69]

it's a very painful death not recommended

[@farrier2708]

Watt? It's a combination of volts 'and' current that kills you? Ohm y God! I just could not 'resist' that.

[@TheFairytail4ever]

My friend....

[@prinssdgunofficial2400]

You're getting a load of *negatively charged* comments with those puns. *current*ly you aren't even going to survive the flow of puns. Truly *shocking*, isn't. Alright sorry i am in the *flow*. With these subjects you just get elec-*tons* of chances for puns.

[@farrier2708]

@@prinssdgunofficial2400 : We need help! We're both seeing through a Lenz darkly. Yes! I know it should be "Through a GLASS darkly" but I'm getting desperate now. 🖐😣👍

[@awh4272]

So it's really the variable conditions of time/length of shock and resistance that decide whether you live or die?

[@Slovenija_patriot]

Yes and also type of current (DC or AC) and path that current takes through you.

[@sparkfishes]

Its JOULES THAT KILL YOU .....That is why cardiac equipment is stated in Joules. This is interesting but not very good at answering the title question. Here is a good example that it is not amps or volts that kill but AxV x t A stick (arc) welder is 100 - 200 Amps but you can touch the electrode without it killing you ....or feeling it ! Now take a car ignition lead, a whimshirst machine or the example of the nylon carpet : as stated these can give you a shock of 20 000 volts and not kill you..... you will definitely feel it but it will not kill you 4000v at 0.05a could kill you . 3000V at 1 amp would have a chance of killing you 7500V and 5 Amps would definitely kill you . A factor not mentioned is where the electrical path is when you get shocked : right hand to right leg is less dangerous than right hand ,across the chest and out your left hand ( or vice versa). When dealing with HV comes equipment it was always advised , by the armed forces, that you keep one hand in your pocket so you have less chance of making a path across your chest. Personally I did have a 7500V at 0.035amp from right hand to left leg ....it burned my hand, left leg and threw me against the edge of a desk with enough force to leave a very heavy bruise on my back for several weeks ......I was lucky in that I kicked the transformer over and broke the circuit and probably my skins electrical resistance was high...it being a hot summers day , low humidity.

[@lalimalik6614]

Thank you :) and you are a very lucky guy for being able to kick it over, hope you didnt get lasting injuries

[@Bartooc]

I mean that's exactly what the video said. It's the ratio between current, voltage and time that kills.

[@Euquila]

Jesus. There's no time to even be frightened because it's life or death inside a couple seconds of decision making.