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Voltage or Current. Which is the real killer?

Voltage or Current. Which is the real killer?

Hey guys,
This might be the most controversial  this or that question after the famous chicken or egg.
Lets see it clearly,


It is not the high current or high voltage that kills you.

       Take for eg., a 24V  battery can produce much higher current than the wall socket (in the range of 10-15 amps) in our home does. Still it can’t electrocute us if we touch both the terminals.

      So what it is? Is it the high voltage that kills us. No, it is not for sure.

      To get clear about this take an example of Van de graaff generator what you might have heard in high schools or in youtube videos. So a large Van de graaff generator  can produce 500000 volts or 500kv , but we had seen a stranger touching the sphere with his bare hand. The reason here is the over all rated output current generated in Van de graaff is in the range of micro amperes which you will not even feel.

     So what kills us? It is the combination of both at a certain value to overcome the resistance of the human body resistance. Human body resistance is about 100k ohm at dry condition and just 1000ohm in wet condition.
     If the voltage is high enough to push the current of about 100mA to your body by exceeding the resistance of your body, then you are dead.
You can feel the shock in the voltage above 100 or 110 volts  pushing a current of about 1-5mA from our residential supplies.

   Higher the voltage than that, higher the milliamps will flow and higher the cause for your body.
Even a 35mA is sufficiently enough  to cause  cardiac arrest if your holding it for more than 5 seconds.
So everything matters!

 Coming to the conclusion, yes it is the combination of both that electrocutes us, but voltage has the upperhand since there is no current without voltage.

Hope you have learnt something new and clear from this blog. If you guys have any doubts let me know in the comment section.
 Take care! Cheers! bye!


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Location: India

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