It's both. Your body has a certain resistance. When you touch a high voltage wire, that resistance causes a certain current to flow, from ohm's law. If that current is high enough and in the right place, you are dead.
If you lower your body resistance (which you can do by various ways, such as skin dampness) say in half, and lower the voltage to half, the effect on your body would be about the same because the current is the same.
volts jolts, mils kills.
Any voltage with a current less than 10mA should not be fatal
People take huge shocks every day ( many thousands of volts) as static electricity with no ill effects due to the small current.
However if the current is say 100mA. this can well be lethal.
PS
75 volts at large enough current can be lethal.
Think of your body as a resistor.
The heating effect = I^2R where I is the current and R is your body resistance.
200 mA and 2000 ohms, I^2R = 80 watts (think of a 100 watt light bulb!)
Yes - say you are standing in a pool of water - it is mech more dangerous.
sams answer is wrong. The human body can quite easily and safely conduct high voltage electricity. Search youtube for video of people holding fluorescent light bulbs in their hand and the bulbs light up because the person's other hand is on a high voltage source.
It is the amps that do the damage. In electrical resistance, the heating goes as I^2 * R where I is the current. So... if the current doubles, the heating goes up by 4X. If the current goes up by a factor of 10, the heating goes up by a factor of 100, if the current goes up by a factor of 100, the heating goes up by a factor of 10,000.
You are right that current can not flow without a potential difference but a potential difference of fractions of a millivolt will easily carry current.
a static shock, such as touching a doorknob after rubbing your feet on a rug, is typically 15,000 V.
100mA can cause your heart to lose sync and not beat correctly, which is potentially fatal.
high power can cause burns, but if you die from electricity, it most likely be due to your heart, not burns.
most of the people who responded are incorrectly referencing power equations as the math model of human death due to electricity.
voltage and current are linked to each other through V=IR
If you have a 200V source across your body, assuming the contact on your skin and the interior resistance does not change, the current will ALLWAYS be the same
things that can effect your bodies resistance is skin moisture, hydration level and things of that nature
billrus is correct, everyone elses answer is either completely or partially wrong
both
even if the voltage was low and the amps is high you will be hurt
same goes for low amps and high voltage
it depends on the resistance of your body to electricity passage through the body
the more resistance the more hurt will happen
:)
BOTH ARE NEEDED IN ORDER TO GIVE YOU A DEAD KILL.
Examples, if you touch a power source that builds up a circuit path through your heart, and it has....
[1] 1 volt and 10000A, you are safe.
[2] 240V with 1mA, you are safe.
[3] 100V with 20mA, you are DEAD.
I keep hearing the above in relation to current electricity accidents. How true is the above statement? I thought current could not flow without a potential difference.
