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Re: Why cant we feel RF burns?



Original poster: Terry Fritz <vardin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Hi,

At 12:15 AM 9/18/2005, you wrote:

I quote this from a website I came across:

Burns: Due to the high frequencies involved, Tesla coils can cause severe burns without the sensation of pain. These burns are typically very deep and need long term medical attention.

Sounds like something I wrote :-)

http://hot-streamer.com/TeslaCoils/Safety/safety.htm


Does it mean that RF (because of the high frequencies), can induce the current to flow along the blood vessels without flowing along the membranes. As such, we wont be able to feel the pain because the nerve cells, etc are located along the membranes and not inside any blood vessels...

No. The electrical "Skin Depth" in humans is about 1 ot 2 meters at Tesla coil frequencies. Currents flow along the path of least resistance (I may have said that backwards in another post..). The AC currents do no allow the sodium in the nerves to become polarized to create the chemicals that cause pain or something like that. It takes a fraction of a second for current to be registered as pain but the AC currents basically turn the nerves off... I am not a doctor, but it is something like that.



Is it only RF current can be able to flow in the inner parts of the body without flowing along the membranes (exterior) first?

The dry outer skin is pretty none conductive, but the voltages we deal with are very high. The current simply flows alone the lowest resistance paths. If the current is high enough, you can actually get a plasma "arc" thorough you. that is "bad"...


If so, how is that possible? Do we just take it for granted that RF current has this special property of allowing the current to flow in the inner parts w/o any flowing along the exterior?

In or case, the currents flow much like DC currents. But the AC nature of the currents prevents the nerves from reporting pain.


Cheers,

        Terry



Thanks
Sam