Didcot
Read from another source...
Voltage isn’t inherently damaging to living tissue. Birds are happy on overhead live wires, and electric eels (which aren’t actually eels, apparently, they’re knifefish, and they breathe air) can unleash 500V without any detrimental effects to themselves. The problem comes when there’s a different voltage on either side of you, which will cause a stabilising current to flow through you till the voltages are even. And since a fair amount of physiological processes rely on small, controlled bioelectric currents (nerves, brain cells, heart pulsation) a large whammy of extra current going through is A Bad Idea. Not to mention all the burny stuff and eye melty that starts to happen if the current continues.
This chart shows the effects of a given amount of current. We can use Ohm’s law Voltage = current x resistance to find the current through the kitten. The voltage is 240V from the mains, and assuming the four hob igniters are wired up in parallel, that’s what they each pump out... 240/1,000 = 240mA. “Venticular fibrillations1, fatal if continued”. Ouch. Or, if they’re wired up in series, each one only gets 60V. 60/1,000 = 60mA. “Beginning of sustained muscular contraction — can’t let go current.” That’s definitely more what it felt like.
