Originally posted by jhawkins
DISCLAIMER:
WARNING
Electricity can be fascinating, but be aware that it can also be dangerous. Living tissue does not respond well to high-current electricity. It can burn; and even comparitively low currents can kill by interfering with the nervous system, possibly stopping the heart or breathing or both.
Current (measured in ampères, or "amps" for short) is the killer. Voltage ("electrical pressure", measured in volts) in and of itself doesn't kill; but under certain conditions it can result in dangerous currents - and these are what do the damage. So you need to treat high voltage with a great deal of respect. Always! You never know when you are going to get "bitten".
It goes without saying that a high-voltage, high-current shock is almost certain to be lethal. (Large birds flying into power lines find this out the hard way.) Even if you survive, burn injuries can be horrific.
Less well known is the fact that a person can sometimes get a very dangerous high-current shock even in a low-voltage environment, if conditions are "right". Someone doing maintenance in a large damp industrial electrolysis tank can be electrocuted if some idiot turns the (quite low-voltage) power on.
Even though a high-voltage, low-current shock may not kill you, it may startle you into a violent sudden involuntary movement. You may injure yourself just by banging into something, or you may accidentally touch some part of a circuit which could be more obviously dangerous. Any kind of unexpected phenomenon involving humans and high voltage can be bad news.