A person is standing with one bare foot on a damp basement floor, while grabbing

Question

A person is standing with one bare foot on a damp basement floor, while grabbing a metal pipe that is somehow connected to the household's 120V power line. If their foot measures about 8 inches by 3 inches, and their hand about 5 inches by 3 inches, then their areas are 24 inches2 and 15 inches2 respectively. One square inch is about 6 cm2, so make that 144 and 90. Therefore:

Rfoot=12,000 ohms/144= 83 ohms and Rhand=12,000 ohms/90=133 ohms

Since foot and hand are in series, we add them to get 216.

Finally, if the person shown was touching the hot pipe with a much smaller area of bare skin on their hand, say 1/10th of 1cm2, what then would be the current through their body if all the other numbers stayed the same? Please show work.

Pick one: 9 amps, .9 ams, .09 amps, .009 amps, .0009 amps

Explanation / Answer

the total resistance = 216 ohm + 1000 ohm = 1216 ohm

R = 1216 ohm

voltage V = 120 Volt

current through their body will be

I = V / R

= 120 / 1216

= 0.0986 amp

= 0.09 amp

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