Why alternating current is more dangerous than the direct current?

Answer 1

Edison, the inventor of DC, tried his hardest to convince the public that Tesla's AC that was more dangerous, but DC is far more dangerous. If you are shocked wit high-current DC, you do not have a "kickback" type reaction where you will jump away from the wire. Instead, the constant signal of DC causes you to hold on to the wire against your will, worsening the shock.

Answer 2

Voltage without current is not dangerous. Similarly, current without voltage is not dangerous. Think of voltage as the desire to hurt you, and current as the muscle to carry though with it; or voltage as the speed of a river, and current as the amount of water in that river.

120V out of a power outlet can be more dangerous than a taser because the outlet has both - 120 volts is enough to arc to your body, and if you are grounding yourself well (through a pool of water), it has enough umph to guide the current through you.

The taser, on the other hand, provides large amounts of voltage, which overrides your brains' signals to your muscles and tells them all to contract. It does not provide enough current, though, to harm you (or it isn't supposed to).

A car battery can provide massive amounts of current, but at only 12 volts, it is not enough to cause you serious harm.

Answer 3

Current and voltage are related via Ohm's law: V = I*R. If you think of your body as the resistance in Ohm's law, you can see that you cannot separate voltage and current. A low voltage will not cause a high enough current to harm you (such as a car battery). It is not as clear from Ohm's law, but still true, that a high voltage may not be able to induce a high current, and thus may be harmless as well - this is the case when you rub your feet on a carpet and touch an outlet - the spark is indicative of a relatively high voltage, but there aren't enough extra electrons built up on your body to cause a high current, so the shock you feel is harmless.

Answer 4

This is really a 'chicken and egg' situation. It's the current passing through your body that does the damage, but the amount of current depends upon the voltage that the body is subjected to. The higher the voltage, the higher the resulting current. So the two are really very closely linked. In a way, your question is rather like asking, "Which is the most dangerous, falling from a tall building or hitting the ground?"!

Answer 5

DC is generally held to be more dangerous because it is more difficult to interrupt and if arcing occurs it can sometimes be prolonged, while an arc in an ac switch usually goes out when the current passes through zero during the natural ac cycle, which is a time of less than 10 mS on a 50 Hz system (8.3 mS on a 60 Hz system).

Answer 6

in case when a human body comes in the path of an electric current then in the case of ac there are chances of survival because of negative polarity but in the case of dc this chance is zero.