@The Psyentist 570314 wrote:
I wouldn’t mind being shot with a tazer, I’m curious in a life threatening sort of way lol
@Tryptameanie 570317 wrote:
Incredible, I wouldn’t mind shooting you with a tazer. What a coincidence. Have to get a tazer now, science is science after all and we must see the results.
A living creature can receive a shock from quite strong voltage without lasting ill effects provided the electric current is kept below a safe level [that varies with species, size and state of general health].
Tasers (and modern electric fence systems; which are deployed against species that have a far lower tolerance to electricity than humans) are supposed to limit the current but produce a very high voltage
the circuit for these kinds of devices is relatively easy to build (though if you want anything over about 300 volts requires a lot of fiddly winding of fine wire on a coil); when batteries were first invented in 1800 by an Italian chap called Alessandro Volta he actually demonstrated them by shocking people and/or making big sparks; as there wasn’t much else invented that could use electricity .
it did inspire Michael Faraday from England and Hans Christian Ørsted from Denmark to discover the links between electricity and magnetism – which is the basis of how all our gadgets work (and also how a small battery can be made to produce a strong voltage from the right kind of coil)
The text below (in French; he was writing to scientists who may not know Italian but learned French as a second language) explains the 60 cell battery (about 120 volts) was too painful for one assistant when he held one side of the battery and put his hand into a bowl of salt water connected to the other side.
Volta therefore increased the number of assistants so 3 or more people got a less painful shock (so his name is honoured in the units for measuring the pressure of an electric current). His battery could not deliver enough current to harm them but could provide enough current for making telegraphs, telephones and other indicators work.
120 volts can often appear on telephone cables (as part of the ringing signal, or power to digital equipment); unpleasant enough if you brush your knuckles against open block terminals (which is why they are not used any more these days) and sometimes I can even feel the -48 volts that is usually always present on standard analogue circuit. Perhaps this is due to increasing age as it never seemed to bother me before. What usually causes accidents to telecoms engineers is not the shock but being at height/in a confined space and reflex actions making you fall off the ladder/out the roof space and bust up other bits of your body…
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