Some little-known facts about electricity that’ll cook your mind!

1. It is suspected that lightning actually works from the ground up

   While it is widely believed that a bolt of lightning shoots from the sky, a slow-motion video was taken a number of years ago showing lightning working from the ground up. Doesn’t this scare you when you think about hooking to ground before doing some electrical work?

2. A static shock that you can see, hear, and feel is approximately 250 Volts of electricity (but can definitely be higher than that)

   The next time that you’re in the dark, moving blankets around and watching sparks fly (no joke intended), think about all the electricity that you’re generating.

3. Human beings can handle significant amounts of voltage; it’s the current that kills people
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   Current takes the easiest path with the least resistance, going through the body and back to ground. If the path of least resistance happens to be across your chest, your heart will stop.

4. Approximately 0.01 Amps of current is enough to kill.

   Scary, isn’t it? There aren’t very many machines that you will find that use less than .01 Amps.

5. Electrocution is one of the top causes of workplace deaths

   This is a sad, but very true, fact. Anything from a loose wire to water being in the wrong place can cause a worker to be electrocuted. Always be on the lookout for any electrical hazards, including loose wires, spills, water leaks, etc.

6. Once a person has been electrocuted and survives, they never have the same personality as they did before being zapped

   A loud person may become quiet; a quiet person may become loud and obtrusive. Electrotherapy is still used today for this very reason; an electrical shock can change the behavioural patterns of any person.

7. The electric eel can generate up to 500 Volts at 1 Ampere

   This is a disgusting fact, but I felt that I had to mention it. The electric eel doesn’t zap itself because the organs responsible for the release of electricity are located in its tail. Water conducts the electricity and pulls it away from the eel.

8. If you give a static shock when touching a touch lamp, the lamp won’t turn on

   This was bizarre, but give it a try. A touch lamp turns on because of sensors that detect a change in the capacitance when a person or animal touches it. However, somehow the sensors are not set off when a static shock is applied.

9. If you were to put a battery into a flashlight backward, and then added a lot more voltage, eventually the flashlight would turn on… just before it explodes
   There is a long explanation for this, but just trust me. Don’t try it.
10. The electric chair was invented by a dentist

    The dentist’s name was Alfred P. Southwick. It was Thomas Edison’s employee who actually built the chair.