Learning Intention 1

To develop an awareness of electrical safety

Success Criteria
Describe how electric shock affects human physiology especially the nervous and
respiratory systems.
Recall the factors that affect human conductivity and resistance.

Identify the common electrical dangers and hazards in the home.

Relate the factors that affect human conductivity to electrical dangers and safety
in the home and be able to explain how a particular safety measure protects
humans from potential shock.

Static Electricity
Static electricity is the build-up of electric charge on a surface.
This build-up of charge most commonly occurs because the surface has been rubbed
against another surface. Electrons have been rubbed off one surface (charging it
positive) and have transferred to the other surface (charging it negative).
Watch the video below on static electricity.
https://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-science-of-static-electricity-anuradha-bhagwat

When the video is finished complete the following table:

Connect: These are things that I already knew before watching the video
Extend: These are new things that I have learnt from watching the video
Challenge: This is a question I have after watching the video

Connect Extend Challenge

Static electricity is formed Can static electricity kill
Can be harmful depending by atoms having more you if powerful enough?
on the amount of voltage positive protons and which
on the wire reacting to the negatively
charged electrons from
another object. Which is
called imbalanced

Conductors usually
It is created by friction contain more negatively
charged electrons meaning
that they are more likely to
create a static energy

It can strike without

warning

Physiological Effects of Electricity

Most of us have experienced some form of electric “shock,” where electricity causes our
body to experience pain or trauma. If we are fortunate, the extent of that experience is
limited to tingles or jolts of pain from static electricity build up discharging through our
bodies. When we are working around electric circuits capable of delivering high power to
loads, electric shock becomes a much more serious issue, and pain is the least significant
result of shock.
As electric current is conducted through a material, any opposition to that flow of electrons
(resistance) results in a dissipation of energy, usually in the form of heat. This is the most
basic and easy-to-understand effect of electricity on living tissue: current makes it heat up.
If the amount of heat generated is sufficient, the tissue may be burnt. The effect is
physiologically the same as damage caused by an open flame or other high-temperature
source of heat, except that electricity has the ability to burn tissue well beneath the skin of
a victim, even burning internal organs.

Another effect of electric current on the body, perhaps the most significant in terms of
hazard, regards the nervous system. By “nervous system” I mean the network of special
cells in the body called “nerve cells” or “neurons” which process and conduct the multitude
of signals responsible for regulation of many body functions. The brain, spinal cord, and
sensory/motor organs in the body function together to allow it to sense, move, respond,
think, and remember.

Nerve cells communicate to each other by acting as “transducers:” creating electrical

signals (very small voltages and currents) in response to the input of certain chemical
compounds called neurotransmitters, and releasing neurotransmitters when stimulated by
electrical signals. If electric current of sufficient magnitude is conducted through a living
creature (human or otherwise), its effect will be to override the tiny electrical impulses
normally generated by the neurons, overloading the nervous system and preventing both
reflex and volitional signals from being able to actuate muscles. Muscles triggered by an
external (shock) current will involuntarily contract, and there’s nothing the victim can do
about it.

This problem is especially dangerous if the victim contacts an energized conductor with his
or her hands. The forearm muscles responsible for bending fingers tend to be better
developed than those muscles responsible for extending fingers, and so if both sets of
muscles try to contract because of an electric current conducted through the person’s arm,
the “bending” muscles will win, clenching the fingers into a fist. If the conductor
delivering current to the victim faces the palm of his or her hand, this clenching action will
force the hand to grasp the wire firmly, thus worsening the situation by securing excellent
contact with the wire. The victim will be completely unable to let go of the wire.

Medically, this condition of involuntary muscle contraction is called tetanus. Electricians

familiar with this effect of electric shock often refer to an immobilized victim of electric
shock as being “froze on the circuit.” Shock-induced tetanus can only be interrupted by
stopping the current through the victim.

Even when the current is stopped, the victim may not regain voluntary control over their
muscles for a while, as the neurotransmitter chemistry has been thrown into disarray. This
principle has been applied in “stun gun” devices such as Tasers, which on the principle of
momentarily shocking a victim with a high-voltage pulse delivered between two
electrodes. A well-placed shock has the effect of temporarily (a few minutes) immobilizing
the victim.

Electric current is able to affect more than just skeletal muscles in a shock victim, however.
The diaphragm muscle controlling the lungs, and the heart—which is a muscle in itself—
can also be “frozen” in a state of tetanus by electric current. Even currents too low to
induce tetanus are often able to scramble nerve cell signals enough that the heart cannot
beat properly, sending the heart into a condition known as fibrillation. A fibrillating heart
flutters rather than beats, and is ineffective at pumping blood to vital organs in the body. In
any case, death from asphyxiation and/or cardiac arrest will surely result from a strong
enough electric current through the body. Ironically, medical personnel use a strong jolt of
electric current applied across the chest of a victim to “jump start” a fibrillating heart into a
normal beating pattern.
That last detail leads us into another hazard of electric shock, this one peculiar to public
power systems. Though our initial study of electric circuits will focus almost exclusively
on DC (Direct Current, or electricity that moves in a continuous direction in a circuit),
modern power systems utilize alternating current, or AC. The technical reasons for this
preference of AC over DC in power systems are irrelevant to this discussion, but the
special hazards of each kind of electrical power are very important to the topic of safety.

How AC affects the body depends largely on frequency. Low-frequency (50- to 60-Hz) AC
is used in US (60 Hz) and European (50 Hz) households; it can be more dangerous than
high-frequency AC and is 3 to 5 times more dangerous than DC of the same voltage and
amperage. Low-frequency AC produces extended muscle contraction (tetany), which may
freeze the hand to the current’s source, prolonging exposure. DC is most likely to cause a
single convulsive contraction, which often forces the victim away from the current’s
source.
AC’s alternating nature has a greater tendency to throw the heart’s pacemaker neurons into
a condition of fibrillation, whereas DC tends to just make the heart stand still. Once the
shock current is halted, a “frozen” heart has a better chance of regaining a normal beat
pattern than a fibrillating heart. This is why “defibrillating” equipment used by emergency
medics works: the jolt of current supplied by the defibrillator unit is DC, which halts
fibrillation and gives the heart a chance to recover.

In either case, electric currents high enough to cause involuntary muscle action are
dangerous and are to be avoided at all costs. In the next section, we’ll take a look at how
such currents typically enter and exit the body, and examine precautions against such
occurrences.
How does electricity effect the Human Body?
Read the Physiological effects of electricity exert (in the electricity folder on the HUB)
and complete the following problems.

1. List 5 effects of electric current has on the human body.

- It can burn
- Override the nerves in our body
- Contract muscles which will clench onto the wire for longer blood vessels will
begin to contract and the heart may start pumping in a unordinary manner.
-

2. The toaster may be carrying an electric current of 6A. What is the likely outcome
if a child comes in contact with the live element?
The outcome of the child would be his muscles will begin to contract and clench
onto the wire for a longer period of time. Although this will no effect the body as
the voltage is not high enough for his body not to being able to handle it before
his vital organs and other parts of the body start failing.

3. Why is it particularly dangerous to touch a live wire with your hand?

it is very dangerous to tough a live wire as any such as a little bit of voltage can
cause fatal damage to the human body. There are also other fatal damages that
the life wire can cause as which if electricity is higher than 10 volts can cause
serious problems with the heart in 3 seconds and electrical items are used every
day live by civilians that have no idea in the cause.

4. What are the different effects on the heart from a DC and an AC source?
AC’s alternating nature has a greater tendency to throw the heart’s pacemaker
neurons into a condition of fibrillation, whereas DC tends to just make the
heart stand still. Once the shock current is halted, a “frozen” heart has a better
chance of regaining a normal beat pattern than a fibrillating heart. This is why
“defibrillating” equipment used by emergency medics works: the jolt of
current supplied by the defibrillator unit is DC, which halts fibrillation and gives
the heart a chance to recover.

5. Why are you more likely to receive a fatal shock if you have just stepped out of
the shower?
this is because covered yourself in water will expose you to a higher rink as
electricity is a conductor of water meaning that it allows electric current to move
through it easily exposing your body to a higher chance in being shocked.
 6. Research and then explain how static electricity can be dangerous.
It is dangerous when there are flammable gases or a high concentration of
oxygen. A spark could ignite the gases and cause an explosion. It
is dangerous when you touch something with a large electric charge on it. The
charge will flow through your body causing an electric shock.

Success Check
Learning Intention 1
To develop an awareness of electrical safety
Success Criteria
Describe how electric shock affects human physiology especially the nervous and
respiratory systems.
Recall the factors that affect human conductivity and resistance.

Identify the common electrical dangers and hazards in the home.

Relate the factors that affect human conductivity to electrical dangers and safety
in the home and be able to explain how a particular safety measure protects
humans from potential shock.