Two people are handcuffed together, one gets tasered. Would the other person feel anything?
While formulating this post, I came unstuck regarding the past tense of taser. Tased or tasered?
Let’s conduct an experiment. Bring handcuffs and a friend. I’ll supply the taser.
Great question. I have no idea but I would guess no, unless their skin was also touching.
I’ll comment on the grammar. Use tasered. Tased is a back-formation from Taser. A taser doesn’t tase you any more than a laser lases you.
Laser and taser are both acronyms. The use of the laser acronym as a noun has led to the use of “lase” as a verb form (see here). Physicists will speak of a “lasing” medium (the substance in a laser that actually produces/emits laser light), and whether something does or does not “lase.”
The dictionary presents taser as a noun and verb; however, I’ve heard “tase” as a verb in popular usage countless times; I expect it’s only a matter of time before it gets added to the dictionary as a/the verb.
As for whether a person in physical/electrical contact with a tasing victim will feel the effect, the anwer is yes. I’ve seen a few videos of cops wrestling with a suspect when an assisting officer tased/tasered the suspect; the first officer had not yet completely removed himself from the suspect, and afterward he complained that he was getting tased, too.
In fact, here’s a a multi-person taser demo.
But a laser DOES lase you – at least I’ve seen the term used that way in any number of sci-fi stories.
Metal handcuffs? Yeah, the other person would feel something. Plastic? Not unless their skin was in contact.
Compassion ?
The current in the video passes through all the people. If you were handcuffed to someone being tasered, the current wouldn’t pass through you IMHO.
I asked this very question during the security course I took a few weeks ago. The instructor (former law enforcement officer) said that anything between the two electrodes will get shocked. If you have 2 people handcuffed together and only one of them has both electrodes on him, only he will get shocked. If each person has one electrode each on them, they both get shocked.
I think I just changed my opinion after watching this video. The two men are holding the woman’s arms with their bare hands as she’s tased, and they don’t show any reaction.
The person who isn’t attached to the probes would have almost no chance of feeling the effects of electricity. In most training exercises, the volunteer is flanked by spotters. If the probes are on the volunteer’s back, the spotters will be unaffected while holding the volunteer’s arms.
When used in the field, an officer might end up getting shocked as well. Most cartridges have two, 21-foot wires attached to the probes. If the target is relatively close to the officer, the wires tend to bunch up. Although the wires are insulated, they can also provide a shock. Therefore, an officer near the target might also get a shock.
That makes sense. If two people hold hands, or are handcuffed, and each one touches an electrode, they’ll both feel it. Of course they would also be morons.
Don’t lase me, bro!