I like watching programs like Cops, and how uncooperative perps get subdued got me curious.
If a policeman crams a taser into someone (i.e. not firing from a distance) and fires it do others also trying to subdue the person feel the zap to any significant degree?
Reported for forum change
Forum change requested…unless you are suggesting new enforcement techniques for the moderators?
OOPS! No I don’t want to tase the moderators! They’re nice guys! Really! :eek:
Please move this appropriately (and don’t tase me).
Going to move this to GQ for you.
I’m sure there have been many occasions when we’ve all wanted the ability to tase someone through the computer.
Anyway, on a more serious note, whether you use a taser at a distance or on contact, the current flow is from one probe point to the other. The idea that electricity only takes the path of least resistance is wrong. The current will take all possible paths to flow from one probe point to the other. However, the bulk of the current will take the path of least resistance.
Some of it depends on exactly where you are touching the person. If you just touch them with one hand, it’s easy enough to find some current paths through you. The bulk of the current through you will flow from one finger to the other though. While some current will take much more convoluted paths (like in one finger, up your arm, around your neck and head, then back down the other side of your arm, and back out through another finger), those currents will be much smaller in magnitude. With most of the current flowing through the taser victim and only a tiny amount through you, and even then only a tiny amount of that flowing through anything other than your hand, it’s a safe bet to say that you won’t feel anything at all, even in your hand (unless your hand is extremely close to the taser’s point of contact).
On the other hand, if you happen to touch the person with one hand very close to one side of the taser and the other hand very close to the other side of the taser, you may end up with enough current flowing through you for it to feel a bit unpleasant.
Wouldn’t one alternate current pathway be from one taser electrode through the suspect’s body and then to ground? And if so, I would think an officer in physical contact with the suspect could be susceptible to shock.
I would think tasers and defibrillators would have the same risks in this regard. Rescuers using an AED are told to stand clear before shocking a patient. Same idea applies.
Thanks. Actually, thinking about AEDs was another reason my question came to mind.
As long as one doesn’t touch between the probes, regardless if it’s a drive stun or a distance shot, you’ll be alright. This is trained during Taser cert.
Touch between them and it arcs. You’re going to get a jolt. And it’s not excatly the same sensation as what the perp is getting. It’s more like the zap from touching a spark plug on a running engine. It hurts like crazy!!!
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I see at least one medical device manufacturer notes that the sexual partner of a person with an implantable cardiac defibrillator can receive a " tingling sensation" if the patient receives a shock during sexual activity.
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I’ll take that to mean that there can be some current flow, even if not enough to cause pain or damage.
I’ll note that with sexual activity, there are liquids which help with conductivity. If all you feel is a tingling under those conditions, I wouldn’t expect to feel anything touching with dry skin.
Electricity flows in a circuit, a circle of sorts. It goes out from the source, through whatever it is going through, and comes back into the other side of the source. If there’s no complete path to complete the circuit, then no electricity flows.
In the case of a taser (or any other handheld device) there’s no reason for electricity to be attracted to the earth, because there’s no return path from the earth back to the device. So in the above case, there’s no reason for electricity to flow into the ground.
Electricity in your house is a different story. It is possible to run an electrical system that is isolated from earth ground. These systems are actually safer, since you can touch either electrical conductor and earth ground and not get shocked. Hospitals use isolated systems in operating rooms for just this reason. Hospitals go to a lot of effort to maintain their isolation, though, and that level of maintenance isn’t practical for a large residential power system. If you tried to keep the entire electrical grid isolated, you’d end up with a randomly grounded system caused by mother nature blowing tree limbs into wires and that sort of thing. So, what they do instead is intentionally ground one of the wires coming into your house. That is then called the “neutral” wire since it is neutral with respect to the earth, and it is literally connected to earth through either a copper grounding rod, or your home’s cold water pipe in older homes. Two wires from this ground connection are then run to every outlet, a neutral wire which carries the current and a safety ground which doesn’t carry any current (I can expand on the reason for the safety ground but that’s probably getting a bit too far off topic from this thread).
So basically, in your home, any path from the “hot” wire to the earth will complete the circuit since the neutral wire of your house is connected to earth. So touching a hot connection and anything that makes an electrical path to ground (the water in your kitchen sink, a window screen if you have aluminum siding, etc) results in a shock. This is because your electrical system is connected to the earth, which allows a circuit to form by completing a path to it.
Since a handheld device doesn’t have any connection to the earth, a single path to earth ground won’t complete the circuit and there won’t be any current flowing. You have to make a complete path back to the handheld device to complete the circuit for current to flow.