I was always taught that it's not volts that kill you but the amps will. How many amps was it pushing?
Wylde1.
Here's the thing about that statement
The SOURCE must have enough AMPERAGE to kill you. Even though there have been deaths from Tasers, they are considered "non lethal." They output thousands of volts but are "current limited" by design
A flashlight battery, even an AA cell COULD output enough amperage to kill you, but it does not produce enough voltage (normally) to DRIVE that amperage through your body resistance
This is a simple case of ohms law, the basis of which is I (current) = E (voltage) / R (resistance)
So if you RAISE resistance, current goes down, but if you RAISE voltage, current goes up
This means that if your body is wet and sweaty, or you fell on something that cut into your flesh with the electrode, your body resistance went DOWN and so the current through your body needs less VOLTAGE to drive it
If you took enough AA cells in series to develop, say, 24V, and hooked it up to needles inserted in your chest, I'd bet money you'd be dead
Many power supplies, like ignition transformers for oil burners and neon sign transformers are "supposed" to be current limited and "supposed" to be non lethal
ON THE OTHER hand, some modern high energy ignition systems CAN be lethal!!
So it's a COMBINATION of how high or low your body resistance is---
whether the source can output enough voltage to drive a lethal amount of current through your body in that condition---
and whether the source can output enough current to come up with a "lethal dose" and it "ain't" very much.
If you were to hook a SMALL flashlight bulb in series with a voltage/ current source and kept turning it up while you were "hooked up" by the time the light showed any color -- you'd be dead. A few milliamps (thousanths of an amp) is all it takes
About 100 milliamps at 60 HZ AC is considered lethal, about .1 amp
It also depends on the TYPE of power. Very high frequencies are not as deadly, and DC is not as deadly as 60 HZ AC, often considered one of the most deadly power frequencies, and of course in common use
Additionally, your lethal dose depends on your health condition, and your heart condition. Sometimes, in some people, it doesn't take much to disrupt their nervous system. Even a bad shock that drives someone into a sever panic / anxiety condition could kill them. And of course if the shock is bad enough to cause heart fibrillation -- you're done unless help is nearby