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People always frame the question wrong "Is it volts or amps that kill"... its neither, its power.
The only reason amps sorta works is because the resistance of the heart doesnt vary too much from person to person.
@freemo Not to forget that the path electricity can take is relevant. Hard to kill oneself with a current that does not go through internal organs, but one can die to very little power if it goes the wrong way and is offered little resistance (under the skin, wet skin).
If you fix the current applied, any additional series resistance (e.g. resistance of skin, which depends on which part of the body it is and whether you have a cut there) doesn't change the current that passes through the heart. What does change it is any additional parallel resistance, which is barely affected by things outside of skin (potentially modulo the case of the person being dripping wet with saltwater or similar, which _reduces_ the current that goes through heart compared to a dry person).
@robryk @freemo Valid points, assuming the poles are actually connected by the conductive liquid.
It can be seen as resistances in series and parallel to the current through the heart.
It remains that the path actually has to go through the heart or other sensitive organs - connecting shoulder and hand will hurt, probably do damage, but not kill directly.
@freemo And because the resistance of alternate pathways that do not cross the heart is also mostly person-independent.
@freemo reminded me of a ‘fun’ thing I did for one of the monthly safety trainings when I was a supervisor of field techs. Not super scientific, but it made the point. I had each of the team members hold a section of copper pipe in each hand, and then we measured the resistance across their arms and chest. Then we used the 30 milliamps that can cause defibrillation as the ‘would probably kill you’ current, and I had them each calculate the voltage that would cause their own death.
@freemo Plus the special zone where if the power is ordinarily too low to cause damage, but passes through the heart at just the wrong moment, it upsets the internal pacing and can kill you that way.
Never reach in with both hands!