Edit: great approach to understand the matter: https://youtu.be/BGD-oSwJv3E?is=Fe1FimqTCvN-aY1u
I was looking at some transformers:
But also
If it outputs 12VA (12V * 1A) of apparent power, then it receives/works with (?) 12VA apparent power. That means that the current in my 230V wall outlet is 12 / 230 ≈ 0.05A. Even a button cell can supply 0.15A per hour… This leads my uninitiated head to believe, that it is mainly high voltages that are not compatible with life.
Please advise? 🙃
Basically, amps tell you how fast electricity is moving. If you have a certain amount of amps running through your body, it will kill you (I think technically no matter the voltage?).
Why doesn’t every battery kill you? Electricity at low voltages doesn’t have enough “strength” to push through your body, as your (electrical) ressistance is very high. The higher the voltage, the higher ressistance it can overcome.
So if you touch say 12 V, only very very few microamps will flow through your body, which doesn’t matter.
When you touch 230 V, now the electricity is strong enough to push somewhere between 10 - 100 mA through your body, which will kill you.
(No guarantees that the amperage numbers here are correct, but the scale should roughly work out I hope).
It all boils down to $U = R \cdot I$ (Voltage = Ressistance * Current).
If you want to learn more about the subject, ElectroBoom has some great videos.
Way to completely and utterly ignore pathways through the body. MANY people survive serious shocks simply because the current doesn’t pass through vital organs. See: literally ANY lightning strike survivor, or any idiot that survived touching high voltage lines.
The true, and ONLY reason people survive, is because the electricity that DID conduct through their body, did not conduct through critical body structures, like the brain-to-heart connection. Very little else matters. Someone can “survive” a lightning strike or electrical industrial accident, yet be a vegetable for the rest of their lives.
It is EXACTLY why the only correct course of action during an unprotected thunderstorm when you feel the static charge building, is to crouch down and put as much meat between your head and the ground as possible (by cupping your head and making sure your thighs, lower legs, and arms are in contact as much as possible). Then, if you get struck, it’s the meat that takes the hit instead of your brain and core nervous system, “ideal” circumstances.
Very good explanation! Even i understood this, thank you!
Although this part caught my eye:
Wouldn’t you say it can rather be likened with data bandwidth? Like, how much current per time? Because the electricity flows at a constant speed in the medium regardless of voltage or resistance, right?
What do you think?
Yeah you’re right, electricity flows at a constant speed. Throughput is the more fitting word I guess? Bandwidth to me sounds more like a theoretical max throughput.