5 ms·
Why don't electric fish shock themselves?
- colinbartlett 13y agoThat drawing is priceless.
- hcarvalhoalves 13y agoThe explanation that the Eel doesn't shock itself because it has a larger resistance than smaller fish probably isn't correct, as it can eletrocute bigger animals as well, like a gator: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYwE9mNloO8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYwE9mNloO8
- jbri 13y agoThe electric eel has lots of insulating fat just under the skin - so it wouldn't be too much outside the realms of plausibility for it to have higher electrical resistance than something made primarily of muscle. Of course, the insulating fat also likely provides a sort of faraday cage effect - any current that does hit the eel will just flow through its skin instead of hitting anything important.
- adwf 13y agoYep, I was going with Faraday cage. If the special electrical cells that an eel has on its skin are conducting, then surely there is some form of cage effect happening. Having just done a very very quick search of relevant papers, I'm not entirely sure that anyone has actually looked into this. So the scientific answer would best be "I dunno".
- a8da6b0c91d 13y agoWhy does fat have more electrical resistance than muscle?
- thristian 13y agoMuscle needs to be a conductor because that's how the 'tense' message is signalled—witness Luigi Galvani and his experiments on frogs' legs: apply a current, watch the leg spasm.
- a8da6b0c91d 13y agoI'm not sure nerve impulses are similar to current flowing through a muscle.
- dredmorbius 13y agoThey are. That's the whole point of that experiment. Moreover: cut the conductor and the muscle doesn't move. Which is why nerve damage is so crippling. You literally have lost the ability to signal the muscle.
- a8da6b0c91d 13y agoI'm still not sure potential differences across membranes throughout a muscle are like current flowing through a muscle.
- insaneirish 13y agoYou're describing a current without actually using the word current. Guess what happens when you have potential differences and a conductor. A current. It's literally the definition.
- joeyo 13y agoSmooth, skeletal and cardiac muscle cells and nerve cells do have some differences in their respective ion channel compositions. As a result, their action potentials will look somewhat different. And obviously muscle cells contract while nerves do not. Those differences aside, they are all are excitable tissues. Importantly, they all have voltage-gated ion channels. So they all will respond similarly when placed in electric fields.
- hcarvalhoalves 13y agoNow, that explains better.
- jimzvz 13y agoDoes the alligator actually die in this video? I was expecting a very short shock that would scare the alligator, not the prolonged discharge shown.
- gaius 13y agoAnd does the eel survive?
- NAFV_P 13y agoThe alligator couldn't let go because of the current.
- reddit_clone 13y agoAs someone who had stuck a pin in a socket as a kid, it was extremely painful for me to watch.
- NAFV_P 13y agoOops, I mis-parsed your comment at first. I thought you meant.... "it was extremely painful for me to watch [myself from outside my own body]." What disturbed me most was the prolonged length of the event.
- kordless 13y agoAlligator clip.
- NAFV_P 13y ago"Sympathy for Mr Vengeance" (2002, South Korea)
- bnegreve 13y agoThe size of the animal doesn't really matter, the resistance of its body isn't function of its size. According to the second answer the Eel is more resistant because it has a layer a fat. Unfortunately, there is no evidence of that, but at least it makes sens.
- girvo 13y agoPoor small fish :(
- vinchuco 13y agohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbkv5xOLvnA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbkv5xOLvnA
- Samuel_Michon 13y agoSo, is that how it works for electric sheep as well?
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- ZoF 13y agoHehe, I find it ironic(although completely expected) that the stackexchange users' google search link now results in the stackexchange question itself as well as this HN discussion as the top results.
- agilebyte 13y agoWell, and I find it sad that link #4 takes you to an article that, among other things, says: Science continues to show us complexity that defies chance explanations, and speaks eloquently of the Creator's hand.
- dattaway 13y agoI would assume the voltage drop per square inch is effectively minimal. Over the span of the body, it adds up. The catch is, the fish isn't contorting its posture to shock itself.