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Human antenna

S

smack Down

Diamond Member
Why do I get better reception when holding on to my antenna. Well in this case my antenna is just a coaxial cabel but when I touch the end the picture on my TV goes from fuzzy picture to a very clear picture. Even just moving near it improves the quality.
 
The same thing happens when I touch my radio. Not sure why, but I think it has to do with the smal lelectrical current running through your body.
 
I believe it's because when you touch an antenna, your body becomes part of it. Your flesh has resistance but it still conducts.
 
Yep, your body can be modelled as an RLC circuit and you are basically changing the impedence of the Antenna circuit (not a whole lot) just enough to cause a fuzzy picture.
 
Almost anything organic will conduct electricity somewhat, as long as it has carbon or water. You can even measure the resistance of your skin on a decent multimeter.
 
Originally posted by: nocturne
Almost anything organic will conduct electricity somewhat, as long as it has carbon or water. You can even measure the resistance of your skin on a decent multimeter.
Click to expand...

I was told that if you puncture the skin to a certain depth, the voltage from the 9V battery in a multimeter will kill a human.

 
Originally posted by: PawNtheSandman
Originally posted by: nocturne
Almost anything organic will conduct electricity somewhat, as long as it has carbon or water. You can even measure the resistance of your skin on a decent multimeter.
Click to expand...

I was told that if you puncture the skin to a certain depth, the voltage from the 9V battery in a multimeter will kill a human.
Click to expand...

Methinks you were told wrong...electrical burns go from the inside out anyway, so skin puncture depth shouldnt much matter. 9V DC isnt much to worry about in any case.
 
I'm pretty sure that it doesn't take a lot of power to screw up the heart's regular beat pattern, like only a few milliamps at low voltage. But if a 9V battery, even in direct contact with salty blood, is able to produce that effect, I'm not sure.
I know a human can conduct 100KV with no ill effects - I've done it already, courtesy of the Tesla Coil I built. High frequency power, low amperage - it flows right over the skin.


Edit: Just saw it on Mythbusters - 6 milliamps directly across the heart is likely to be fatal.
 
Originally posted by: Jeff7
I'm pretty sure that it doesn't take a lot of power to screw up the heart's regular beat pattern, like only a few milliamps at low voltage. But if a 9V battery, even in direct contact with salty blood, is able to produce that effect, I'm not sure.
I know a human can conduct 100KV with no ill effects - I've done it already, courtesy of the Tesla Coil I built. High frequency power, low amperage - it flows right over the skin.


Edit: Just saw it on Mythbusters - 6 milliamps directly across the heart is likely to be fatal.
Click to expand...

But that means litterally connecting that across the heart, there are many pathways in the body so other than actually ahving the wires on the heart, it takes a lot more.
 
3 ma was the lethal current (at least as we were told in the Navy.

Its not the voltage that kills ya, think of voltage as the pump in a fire truck. If the pump moves faster you can push more water through the same hose. Current is the amount of water going through, so if you increase the voltage you ALSO increase the current. If you reduce the resistance (such that when you puncture the skin), the amount of current that flows for a given voltage increases. Its like putting in a bigger hose. Same pump, bigger hose, more water.

3ma supposedly kills you by interrupting your brains normal process, and supposedly this was demonstrated by inserting needles into the soft part of the temple. 30V pushed 3ma through the brain killing the individual as his heart started to fibrillate. (Dunno why, I thought the heart had a pacemaker) I take that with a grain of salt, as these were Navy instructors not wanting us to become electrocuted.

 
there are 2 ways electric kills. burn with very high voltage and electricute with current and yeah this is the more often one.
 
Originally posted by: Jeff7
I'm pretty sure that it doesn't take a lot of power to screw up the heart's regular beat pattern, like only a few milliamps at low voltage. But if a 9V battery, even in direct contact with salty blood, is able to produce that effect, I'm not sure.
I know a human can conduct 100KV with no ill effects - I've done it already, courtesy of the Tesla Coil I built. High frequency power, low amperage - it flows right over the skin.


Edit: Just saw it on Mythbusters - 6 milliamps directly across the heart is likely to be fatal.
Click to expand...

A normal battery (1.5V, AA size) for a small multimeter probably is safe (considering it will move current from one hand to the other, and on both the skin punctured and leads in contact with blood circulation) - even if the voltage is upped in some way. However, there are multimeters having bigger batteries, and one of these bigger batteries could be fatal.
 
Originally posted by: bobdole369
3 ma was the lethal current (at least as we were told in the Navy.

Its not the voltage that kills ya, think of voltage as the pump in a fire truck. If the pump moves faster you can push more water through the same hose. Current is the amount of water going through, so if you increase the voltage you ALSO increase the current. If you reduce the resistance (such that when you puncture the skin), the amount of current that flows for a given voltage increases. Its like putting in a bigger hose. Same pump, bigger hose, more water.

3ma supposedly kills you by interrupting your brains normal process, and supposedly this was demonstrated by inserting needles into the soft part of the temple. 30V pushed 3ma through the brain killing the individual as his heart started to fibrillate. (Dunno why, I thought the heart had a pacemaker) I take that with a grain of salt, as these were Navy instructors not wanting us to become electrocuted.
Click to expand...

There is a biological pacemaker, heart is totally independent of brain voluntary control (if you can accelerate your heart beats by your will, please tell me).
The pace maker in the heart can be "affected" by other means (like hormones, adrenaline and so on), and it uses some "chemical ionic" process to know when to "beat". There is a central spot that gives rhytm to everything, but there are many small "parts" of the heart that will "beat" on their own. This is fibrillation - when every small muscle of the heart will "beat" at its own time. It looks like a big band adjusting their instruments. Once the heart is "defibrillated", all the random contraction finish and the beat comes from the single central spot, and the sound is clear and everything work fine.
 
Originally posted by: Calin
Originally posted by: bobdole369
3 ma was the lethal current (at least as we were told in the Navy.

Its not the voltage that kills ya, think of voltage as the pump in a fire truck. If the pump moves faster you can push more water through the same hose. Current is the amount of water going through, so if you increase the voltage you ALSO increase the current. If you reduce the resistance (such that when you puncture the skin), the amount of current that flows for a given voltage increases. Its like putting in a bigger hose. Same pump, bigger hose, more water.

3ma supposedly kills you by interrupting your brains normal process, and supposedly this was demonstrated by inserting needles into the soft part of the temple. 30V pushed 3ma through the brain killing the individual as his heart started to fibrillate. (Dunno why, I thought the heart had a pacemaker) I take that with a grain of salt, as these were Navy instructors not wanting us to become electrocuted.
Click to expand...

There is a biological pacemaker, heart is totally independent of brain voluntary control (if you can accelerate your heart beats by your will, please tell me).
The pace maker in the heart can be "affected" by other means (like hormones, adrenaline and so on), and it uses some "chemical ionic" process to know when to "beat". There is a central spot that gives rhytm to everything, but there are many small "parts" of the heart that will "beat" on their own. This is fibrillation - when every small muscle of the heart will "beat" at its own time. It looks like a big band adjusting their instruments. Once the heart is "defibrillated", all the random contraction finish and the beat comes from the single central spot, and the sound is clear and everything work fine.
Click to expand...

Actually, you can control your heart rate, to a degree through a process called bio-feedback. I had the fortunate opportunity ( :roll: ) to have an RN as a wife who wanted to be sure a couple weekends ago when I had a severe stomach ache. While I was attached to all the fine medical equipment (and suffering still from the stomach) I played around with my heart rate - I could lower it to the upper 40's and raise it into the low to mid 70's at will. It took about 10-20 seconds to make the change. This was quite effective at causing my RN wife to panic repeatedly. (that'll teach her to make the nurses stick needles in me.)


Anyway, one of the more common ways to die from electrocution, is caused by a sufficient current to cause the diaphragm to constrict. Death is caused by lack of breathing. If I'm not mistaken (and I spent a ton of time last year researching this for a similar thread), as the amps increase, breathing is affected first; before the heart beat is disrupted.
 
Originally posted by: DrPizza

Actually, you can control your heart rate, to a degree through a process called bio-feedback. I had the fortunate opportunity ( :roll: ) to have an RN as a wife who wanted to be sure a couple weekends ago when I had a severe stomach ache. While I was attached to all the fine medical equipment (and suffering still from the stomach) I played around with my heart rate - I could lower it to the upper 40's and raise it into the low to mid 70's at will. It took about 10-20 seconds to make the change. This was quite effective at causing my RN wife to panic repeatedly. (that'll teach her to make the nurses stick needles in me.)


Anyway, one of the more common ways to die from electrocution, is caused by a sufficient current to cause the diaphragm to constrict. Death is caused by lack of breathing. If I'm not mistaken (and I spent a ton of time last year researching this for a similar thread), as the amps increase, breathing is affected first; before the heart beat is disrupted.
Click to expand...

hmm i feel like i have also heard that. it makes sense if you think about it since the muscles that control breathing are closer to the surface and more likely to be affected by the field transmitted through your body. i bet once you get that kind of spazing going on your heart isnt far behind, though.
 
I wonder if you could hook up a RP-TNC connector to a grounding strap and use yourself as an omnidirectional 802.11x antenna. If you want to give someone a better signal you would just hold your arm out and point 😀
 
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