Alt-BEAM Archive
Message #13608
To: beam@sgiblab.sgi.com beam@sgiblab.sgi.com
From: Bruce Robinson Bruce_Robinson@telus.net
Date: Monday, April 17, 2000 2:23 PM
Subject: Re: The human body and electricity
yes i saw a medical program about the human heart, anyway it can continue
tobeat after being removed from the body and quartered. i saw the heart
from a pig or something. goto go to dinner
>Timothy Flytch wrote:
>>
>> ... Your brain sends a low voltage electrical impulse that tell
>> your hart to beat...
>
>Well, ... not quite.
>
>The brain doesn't get involved. "The heart has an inherent contractile
>rhythm. That is to say, if all the nerves supplying the heart are
>severed, the heart continues to generate nervous impulses causing it to
>contract in a rhytmical fashion." **
>
>The heart has a special type of muscle fibre interlaced with the regular
>fibres. These fibres conduct impulses faster than the regular muscle
>contracts. In effect, a contraction ripples through the heart, and sets
>itself off again. Sound familiar? Like a microcore :)
>
>The nerves that connect to the heart muscle can influence the
>sensitivity of the special fibres, thus causing the heart rate to
>increase (chemicals circulating in the blood, e.g., adrenaline, also
>have this effect). Sounds even more like a microcore :)
>
>The heart's normal contractions are caused by an electro-physiological
>mechanism, so they can be destroyed by extremely high voltages.
>
>A more common problem which occurs with lower voltage shocks (even
>household current) is when the heart muscles are sensitized to the point
>that they conduct impulses at a very high rate (fibrillation). Basically
>the heart begins to vibrate so quickly that it doesn't have a chance to
>move blood. Try reducing all the resistor values on a microcore by a
>factor of 1000 and see what happens to the motors :)
>
>> ... This is the bases for the one hand method (keep one hand in your
>> pocket)...
>
>Personally, I think it's safer to keep both hands in your pocket. Then
>get your macho buddy to take the CRT apart. Borrow some money from him
>first :)
>
>Bruce
>
>** Quote is from "The Physiological Basis of Physical Education", by
>Fox, Bowers, and Foss.
>
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