Had a full mains voltage style electric shock? Like to share that story with others? Well, don’t. You’re really telling a tale of good fortune rather than fun stuff to do with electricity. The fact is that those mysterious jiggling electrons are lethal. Your heart is an electrical pump. It is controlled by tiny electrical charges, which make the heart walls contract and so push blood around your body. These charges are in the range between 50 to 80 thousandths of an Ampere (50-80mA). Therefore, any electrical shock you get which generates a current across your chest of 50mA or above will interfere with your heart’s ability to function. Anything that can do that, can kill you.
Volts are the measure of electromotive force. The standard mains voltage in European homes is 230 volts (230V). In reality it is a little higher in Britain and a little lower on the continent. 230V is easily enough electromotive force to push a lethal current across a human chest, given the right circumstances for the current to flow. Unsurprisingly there are few videos of this to show you but believe me it will be quick, painful and horrific for those who have to deal with your corpse afterwards.
Here’s an Indian man being electrocuted because he used himself to complete an electrical circuit between the overhead power cables and the earth (the train he was standing on). Don’t watch this unless you are ready to watch someone die and burn.