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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