quote:
Originally posted by andrewdodd13
It's the current. Sort of. For example, a 9V battery should always put out 9V. So, stick the 9V battery against yer tongue, OUCH. Cause your tongue is wet, it has less resistance, hence a bigger current.
And here is my point about measurement. Because dead skin has a high resistance, touching your finger to a battery is like putting a pair of 10k ohm resistors in series with the battery. So, the voltage across the live skin is also significantly lower! For example, if the muscle between the terminals has a resistance of 10k ohm as well, you're only getting 3v across the muscle. Of course, the current is lower as well, and so the total power through live cells when you touch a battery to your skin is 1/9th what it is on the tongue.
You also have factors like internal resistance, and when dealing with batteries, K values of the chemical reaction, which serve to complicate things.
was put impeccably into words at DebianDay for me last Saturday, by Knut Yrvin of Trolltech - adults try something once, fail, and then are like "ffs this doesn't work". Children try, fail, and then try again, and succeed - maybe on the second, or even fifth retry. But the thing is that they keep at it and overcome the problems in the end.
-andrewdodd13
