Sounds like many people insist that the current kills, not the voltage. Is that true? Watch the video and you shall know.

I hope the video is clear enough, if not, let me explain further.

What is electrical current? It is like any other current from many aspects, such as water current. The electrons flow in a wire, similar to water flowing in a pipe. Just that unlike the water that flows inside of a pipe, the electrons flow on the outer skin of the conductor.

How do you make water flow? You provide a difference in height and the water flows from top to bottom, but why? Because as you know, mass at a higher height has a higher potential energy than the one at a lower height. And so when the mass can move, it releases its extra energy by falling down to the lowest level it can go to, hence the water current.

The electrons don’t work the same way as they don’t really have much mass and there are much greater electrical reactions between electrons themselves as well as to the atoms cores exist. So if you hang a wire, the electrons won’t pure down like water does. There needs to be an electrical force or pressure, and that is the voltage.

Voltage in electronics is the same as pressure in mechanics. So in order for electrons to move, there must be some voltage difference between the two wire ends to push the electrons from one side to the other.

Like I said in the video, Voltage is equal to Current times Resistance (V = I x R). Since everything has some resistance, voltage is needed to create current. But if the resistance is zero, the voltage can be zero and there can still be current, I guess! So maybe in super conductors that work at temperatures close to absolute zero, you don’t really need voltage to create current? I doubt it as although there might not be resistance, there should be electrical attraction between particles with electrical charge that would dictate where the electrons will be and they won’t just start going. But don’t take my word for it and do your homework.

And in any case, they won’t just move, something has to make them move in the first place. So some energy is needed.

What I’m getting at is that energy is needed to create current. So current passing through body will kill of course, but there needs to be enough voltage to create enough current to interact with body organs like heart and kill. Similar to if I through a rock and hit someone in the head, the rock kills the guy, but I threw it. And you will never hold the rock accountable, which means really, the voltage is the main killer.

Hope that makes sense!