I read this is it true...electric shock is damaging due to AMPS not volts

'tis true, 'tis true, the volts push it through, but it's the amps what stops the heart laddie.
Getting shocked off a spark plug is not likely to kill you (if you're in good health) because low ampacity.

Yes, it is the amount of current passing through the body that causes the damage.
Remember though that all things being equal, higher voltages will push proportionally more current through your body.
Also remember that it takes less than one-tenth of an amp to kill a human being.

but, the normal electrical communication that goes on between nerves can be disrupted with high voltage at practically no current. This can shut down the heart or other parts of the body. But high voltage tends to only travel along the skin instead of penetrating deep enough to do any permanent damage.

I'm talking about voltages on the tens or hundreds of thousands of volts, not 480.

Think stun gun.

or electric chair

Sparky,You might be interested to know that the the name of the electric chair in Florida is "Old Sparky".

Chris

hey guys yall ever heard of a guy called "NIKOLA TESLA" ? he used to sit i his lab while lighting bolts jumped over his head. he would also hold his hand on what is called a tesla coil, & watch sparks shoot off his finger tips. it seems the higher the frequency the voltage travels over the top of the skin intead of through not harming the person. not only to say this guy was a great inventor of the transformer & the modern electric motor, but i belive he was close to a genius

we used to say" it aint the volts that jolt its the mills that kills"
craig

No question, he was a genius.

Nikola Tesla

Too, http://nic.funet.fi/pub/sci/electrical/tesla/pictures/misc/tesla50.jpg

Primarily: http://www.google.com/search?num=20...el+electric+shock&btnG=Google+Search

When I was in the Navy, they used to tell us that the body's resistance could, under certain circumstances, be as low as 300 ohms. If you apply Ohm's Law, you will find that 30 volts can push .1 amp through your body, and put you in a pine box. It's not likely to happen, but those Navy instructor's got their info from somewhere. Do you think that it happened on some submarine? The old ones were DC. Thought I would throw in my 2 cents.

I=E/R,
Doc

That picture of Nikola Tesla sitting
in a chair as sparks fly about him
was a multiple exposure. The situation
depicted therein was simply lethal to
an unprotected human. The biography
wherein I saw that picture noted that it
was a multiple exposure and mentioned
some contraversy at the time from the
revelation of that fact.

Under extreme conditions it appears it can be even less.
http://www.dc.state.fl.us/oth/deathrow/drorder.html

{Scroll down to the table of measurements about a third of the way down the document. The lowest recorded value is 133 ohms.}

hmmmm, inmate Remeta being the most 'resistant'....can't blame him for trying.....