Why current from a socket is dangerous to people?

[Stanley514]

It is known that electricians like to use rubber mats and rubber shoes to prevent electric shock.It meens that be dangerous to the people current should complete its path to the ground.But most of things that lay on a floor such as linoleum, wood and wool mats are themself very good dielectrics.As well as brick and concrete.So how current is able to complete a circuit?

 

[zhermes]

Extra insulation is always good.
Rubber is one of the best insulators, and thus it is (virtually) always an improvement.

 

[Uglybb]

Are you going to put your life on a gamble that the thing you are standing on is a good insulator?

The only safe option is to assume what you are standing on conducts and provide your own tested insulation material.

 

[Evil Bunny]

Nothing has to go into the ground for you to get shocked. If you touched one side of the socket with the tip of your finger and the other side of the socket with your knuckle, the resistance between your fingertip and your knuckle is not very much and you will get lit up!

 

[Naty1]

Also a sweaty hand or finger is not what you want touching an electric potential! And as bunny implies, connecting positive to ground can occur via fingers as well as feet on the floor; While resistance between a finger and an adjacent knuckle is likely lower than thru a longer body segment, it's a circuit passing thru the heart that can be especially lethal...

More here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_shock#Pathophysiology

 

[russ_watters]

There are all sorts of scenarios where you could be more conductive than you realized:
-What if your feet sweat a lot?
-What if you stepped in dog poo?
-What if you stepped on a thumbtack that didn't quite make it into your foot?

Also, it is much better to make simple rules that you always follow than to make a bunch of different rules for very slightly different scenarios.

 

[Drakkith]

-What if you stepped on a thumbtack that didn't quite make it into your foot?

My great uncle (I think. Its my dads uncle) got shocked by like over 1,000 volts back in the 50's or 60's. In the hospital, he complained about his feet hurting like hell. After a day or two they took a better look at his feet and noticed a bunch of spots on his feet where his skin had died. Turns out it was the nails or tacks in the soles of his shoes where the current concentrated at during its travel through him.