Electrocuting oneself

[TheoneandonlytrueGod]

I just read a post by (I've forgotten who) that knocked me off my chair from laughing so hard. It's the funniest thing I've ever seen on this forum.

Paraphrasing: If you put a wire in your mouth and the other end in your ass, how fast would you have to travel around the earth to electrocute yourself?

The image is so bizarre I had trouble telling it to my wife who didn't understand it but was laughing at my nearly futile attempt to tell it to her. About every other word doubled me over in choking laughter.

If anyone doesn't get it  I'll be happy to oblige them.

[bennyboy]

I just read a post by (I've forgotten who) that knocked me off my chair from laughing so hard. It's the funniest thing I've ever seen on this forum.

Paraphrasing: If you put a wire in your mouth and the other end in your ass, how fast would you have to travel around the earth to electrocute yourself?

The image is so bizarre I had trouble telling it to my wife who didn't understand it but was laughing at my nearly futile attempt to tell it to her. About every other word doubled me over in choking laughter.

If anyone doesn't get it  I'll be happy to oblige them.

I think you are talking about magnetism, no?  If so, one might also conjure to mind fast-spinning figure skaters with similar apparel, standing next to a very large magnet.

[TheoneandonlytrueGod]

I just read a post by (I've forgotten who) that knocked me off my chair from laughing so hard. It's the funniest thing I've ever seen on this forum.

Paraphrasing: If you put a wire in your mouth and the other end in your ass, how fast would you have to travel around the earth to electrocute yourself?

The image is so bizarre I had trouble telling it to my wife who didn't understand it but was laughing at my nearly futile attempt to tell it to her. About every other word doubled me over in choking laughter.

If anyone doesn't get it  I'll be happy to oblige them.

I think you are talking about magnetism, no?  If so, one might also conjure to mind fast-spinning figure skaters with similar apparel, standing next to a very large magnet.

Yes and yes. But the image of someone running around the earth is much funnier.

[Alex K]

I suspect that a simple wire doesn't make much of a difference because the voltage induced along your body will be the same as that in the wire, and since there is no relative voltage drop, there won't be a current circulating through your body and the wire... But maybe I'm missing something.

[TheoneandonlytrueGod]

I suspect that a simple wire doesn't make much of a difference because the voltage induced along your body will be the same as that in the wire, and since there is no relative voltage drop, there won't be a current circulating through your body and the wire... But maybe I'm missing something.

The following is a simplified explanation of the phenomenon of electrical generation.

Your body is, in fact, a resistor and acts as a "load", for instance, as in electrocution.

When a wire (or wires) passes through a magnetic field a current is induced and will flow as long as there is a load (resistance) connecting both ends.

A living body (you or me for instance) not being a metal can pass through any magnetic field at any speed without any current being induced.

...the voltage induced along your body will be the same as that in the wire, and since there is no relative voltage drop...

There is no current generated in your body and the voltage drop is across your body (resistor) not in the wire.

The fact is, while obviously an absurd situation, given a large wire the current developed could, in fact, kill you. In theory, though, one could be electrocuted assuming one could travel around the world fast enough to create a large enough current.

Voltage doesn't kill but current can. See Tesla's static electric experiments. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_coil

Kind of long winded but I hope it clarifies your concern.

[robvalue]

I suspect that a simple wire doesn't make much of a difference because the voltage induced along your body will be the same as that in the wire, and since there is no relative voltage drop, there won't be a current circulating through your body and the wire... But maybe I'm missing something.

Yeah, you're missing a wire stuck in your ass

[Alex K]

What gives you the notion that any less voltage (not talking about current for now!) will be induced along my body compared to the wire as I move through a magnetic field?

[dyresand]

I just read a post by (I've forgotten who) that knocked me off my chair from laughing so hard. It's the funniest thing I've ever seen on this forum.

Paraphrasing: If you put a wire in your mouth and the other end in your ass, how fast would you have to travel around the earth to electrocute yourself?

The image is so bizarre I had trouble telling it to my wife who didn't understand it but was laughing at my nearly futile attempt to tell it to her. About every other word doubled me over in choking laughter.

If anyone doesn't get it  I'll be happy to oblige them.

I have electrocuted myself once when i was little i was like i wonder what electricity tastes like and i plugged in a lamp stuck my tongue where
the bulb would go and pull the cord none the less i never did anything stupid again.

[TheoneandonlytrueGod]

What gives you the notion that any less voltage (not talking about current for now!) will be induced along my body compared to the wire as I move through a magnetic field?

Short answer: A human body is not the sort of material that reacts to magnetic fields (in the sense you suggest). And yes there are electrical currents produced by the body  but not induced by an external magnetic field.

You are constantly moving through the earths magnetic field but there no EMF(potential [voltage]) induced in your body and if there is it is so minuscule it cannot be measured with any instrument  presently available. That is the first reason.

Second reason: it takes a completed circuit before any current can be flow.



V = voltage induced (EMF(potential [voltage])) (can be roughly analogous to water pressure) only in a metallic wire.
C= Current: movement of electrons in the wire (again roughly analogous to the movement of water through a pipe).
R = Resistance: Some substance that resists (impedes) the flow of electrons. Roughly analogous to water being forced through a smaller pipe.
There is no voltage induced in the resistor only an impediment to the flow of electrons (current).

A conductor of electricity that is not connected to some sort of load is known as an open circuit (think blown fuse [tripped circuit breaker] in your house therefore no current flows to a load (light bulb, electric stove, etc);



So in the cited example (a wire connected to two parts of the body) is a closed circuit and therefore a current would flow if you moved fast enough around the earth (a magnetic field). It would induce a current of sufficient quantity to kill you.

Your body actually resists the current flow and in the process generates heat just as a resistor in an electric circuit does. It is the current that kills you not the voltage. Electric Chairs kill with current not voltage. As I said before check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Static_electricity and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_de_Graaff_generator

I think I'm   here. BTW if one has to explain a joke it goes right down the toilet.    Time for   ,  lots of it.

Gack, I thought this would be a quick reply and a simple explanation. BTW are you familiar with or work with electricity?

[Alex K]

What property does a material have to have in order to get voltage induced by a magnetic field, that wire has and my body doesn't?