How Powerful Is An Electric Eel?

[Flashlight237]

So yeah, Electric Eels are very common in fiction, if only because their electricity manipulation is more or less overexaggerated. I mean cartoons often show electric eels zapping people with real lightning, and Blanka from Street Fighter is stated to have gotten electrical abilities from a diet of electric eels. It kinda surprises me how nobody ever talked about them here.

Thing is, in real life, Electric Eels are more mild-mannered. Sources range from 600 to 800 volts and 1 ampere for the real-life electric eel. Thing is eels only can manage this electric current for less than 30 ms; which is the fastest time atrial fibliration can be caused. Less than 30 milliseconds is even far lower than the literal seconds electric eel shocks would last in cartoons. However, its discharge can be compared to a stun gun/taser discharge. Comparably, the electric chair, which is used to kill convicts, would kill someone through a simple process: 1800 volts and 7.5 amps in the first 30 seconds, and 240 volts and 1.5 amps for the last 60 seconds. Pretty much a short zap of an electric eel has twice the electrical current of the weaker current of an electric chair.

With this given amount of info, how powerful IS the infamous electric eel, really? Any answers?

 

[Antoniofer]

The electric eel possesses two electric organs, although only one is used for offensive/degfensive purposes, that one possesses generally 500 V of electricity at a frecuency of "hundreds of Hz". I do not known how is the waveform of a electric eel's output but if is like the street's tension then is more dangerous than the current in the house.

 

[Flashlight237]

The electric eel possesses two electric organs, although only one is used for offensive/degfensive purposes, that one possesses generally 500 V of electricity at a frecuency of "hundreds of Hz". I do not known how is the waveform of a electric eel's output but if is like the street's tension then is more dangerous than the current in the house.

Well. If 500 V can do that, then I'd be kinda afraid what an electric eel can do in its upper limits (600-800V).

Come to think of it, I felt the current of a house once. I remember sticking a metal hair clip into a wall socket and felt the thing shock me. I was elementary school age (1st grade, I think?) at the time. Human touch reactions last 0.15 seconds, so the current lasted something along those lines in length, yet I didn't get stunned by the wall socket, so there's something.

 

[Antoniofer]

Only one source says that they can reach up to 800 V and yet it said its unconfirmed.

You can see the the waveform of the Electric Eel (electrophorus electricus) here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/core/l...e to zoom&p=PMC3&id=2832175_nihms179906f3.jpg. Is not like the house waveform but it still has a peak of 500 V (a house can have between 110-220 V).

 

[Flashlight237]

Is not like the house waveform but it still has a peak of 500 V (a house can have between 110-220 V).

Sorry for not responding sooner. Had to pull a book that I have out. The link to the eel's waveform would be very helpful in rating the eel indeed. Like I said, sources vary when it comes to the eel's voltage. This is the book page with a summary on the electric eel (it was named "poraque" in the book, but a Wikipedia redirection showed that it's the same thing): https://i.imgur.com/UPfJs2J.jpg

The "can stun an adult human" statement is probably hyperbole since it's a Scholastic book, but the voltage is more of an acceptable high-end than an end-all be-all. Still gonna stick with 500V for the low end.