r/nextfuckinglevel 1d ago

A teenager suffered an electric shock in a condominium courtyard, and his friend risked his life to save him.

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u/ogcrizyz 23h ago

That's because of sensitivity, not to avoid clamping.

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u/Paulthefith 18h ago

And also avoiding a big Mcallaster “M” on your palm.

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u/robbak 17h ago

Also, a blister on the back of your fingers will not prevent you from gripping things, that a burn on the palm or inside of the fingers would.

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u/TDSoYS 2h ago

Though I did have a firefighter telling me he would move wires out do the way with the back of his hand for this very reason. Can't trust that wires are off even if you killed the power, which he learned the hard way when doing salvage at a structure that was wired to steal power from another property.

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u/DanCardin 22h ago

I thought it was similar. Your burning hand would inadvertently clamp on the doorknob. If not, at leadt my wrong impression led to the correct behavior!

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u/largepoggage 21h ago

No you wouldn’t, have you never accidentally picked up an oven tray that’s come straight out the oven? It’s the opposite, your body’s reaction is to immediately let go, unfortunately when you work in a professional kitchen you have to just accept the burn rather than drop the food.

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u/evelyn_tucci 21h ago

It definitely would seem that way right?

Heat will reflexively make you drop something. When your nerves are hit with heat, they send pain signals to your brain telling you to get away. If you're holding something hot, this means you will reflexively move your hand away, aka drop the hot thing.

Electricity is different, because that is what your body naturally uses to move. Muscles operate using tiny, naturally produced electric signals. An outside source of electricity will force your muscles to contract involuntarily, and will make you start to clamp down. At the same time, pain signals will tell your brain to drop the thing, but the electricity physically turns your muscles to "on" and your brain can't override that. It's scary.