- #1
wildetudor
- 22
- 0
Hello everyone,
I was lately thinking about how exactly do these two main electrical measures - current intensity and voltage - differ in describing the effects of electricity on human tissue (skin/muscle/brain etc). For example, I know that most of the time there are warnings of high voltages that might harm you, whereas you rarely see a safety limit given in Amperes (so as current intensity), and I don't really understand why.
Isn't the flow of current what, after all, causes harm to tissue? And is that flow not best described by current intensity? Voltage being a difference in electrical potential of two spacially separated points, then, as I understand it, voltage has the potential (in the common sense of the word) to create a current, if the impedance between the two points is low enough - but again, isn't the current (the "effect") the one that has an impact on the tissue, rather than the voltage (which is, in a way, the "cause" of the current)?
Given that the electrical resistance of dry human skin is (probably) relatively constant, shouldn't, then, a particular safety limit be able to be expressed both as a voltage and as a current, given that the two are mathematically related via the skin's resistance?
If anyone could give a more informed opinion on this, or perhaps suggest where on PF this thread should be relocated, I would very much appreciate it - many thanks in advance.
I was lately thinking about how exactly do these two main electrical measures - current intensity and voltage - differ in describing the effects of electricity on human tissue (skin/muscle/brain etc). For example, I know that most of the time there are warnings of high voltages that might harm you, whereas you rarely see a safety limit given in Amperes (so as current intensity), and I don't really understand why.
Isn't the flow of current what, after all, causes harm to tissue? And is that flow not best described by current intensity? Voltage being a difference in electrical potential of two spacially separated points, then, as I understand it, voltage has the potential (in the common sense of the word) to create a current, if the impedance between the two points is low enough - but again, isn't the current (the "effect") the one that has an impact on the tissue, rather than the voltage (which is, in a way, the "cause" of the current)?
Given that the electrical resistance of dry human skin is (probably) relatively constant, shouldn't, then, a particular safety limit be able to be expressed both as a voltage and as a current, given that the two are mathematically related via the skin's resistance?
If anyone could give a more informed opinion on this, or perhaps suggest where on PF this thread should be relocated, I would very much appreciate it - many thanks in advance.
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