An electric shock can occur upon contact of a human or animal body with any source of voltage high enough to cause sufficient current flow through the muscles or nerves. The minimum detectable current in humans is thought to be about 1 milliampere (mA). The current may cause tissue damage or heart fibrillation if it is sufficiently high. When (and only when) an electric shock is fatal, it is called electrocution. Some websites to check out on electric shocks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_shock http://www.pge.com/microsite/safety_esw_ngsw/esw/emergency/shock.html http://www.elec-toolbox.com/Safety/safety.htm Hope I Helped!

The asker did not ask WHEN electricity shocks. The asker asked WHY electricity shocks. The answer is because your neurological system is electrical in nature. In part. Certainly for high-speed communications across the distances of your body. This is not electrical current mind you but ion current, which is incited by electrical current just the same. Your brain instructs your muscles to carry out their tasks through signals involving the movement of electrical charge. That is the language understood by muscles. When you are shocked by an electrical signal, that signal is speaking the same language, the one your muscles understand. And they don't know it's not coming from your brain. They just do what they're told. In this case, it's a bad thing they do what they're told. It can stop your heart, for instance. It also works both ways. Your nervous system not only generates electrical charge flows to interface with muscles but to a large extent (not entirely) that is HOW it actually FUNCTIONS. Just as a floppy disk functions with data that is written magnetically that can be destroyed by a magnetic field (and the magnetic domains don't know or care whether it comes from the magnet in a disk drive or a maniacal two-year-old playing with a horseshow magnet), your nervous system, which not only produces electrical signals but is sensitive to them and functions USING them can be wrecked as well. So, you get your brain wrecked and your muscles too. If the shock is not too strong, your mind can overpower it, but if it is beyond your nervous system's voltage generation capacity, you're stuck doing whatever the exterior voltage tells you to do, which is often to NOT let go of the live wire....

Another good source of safety with electric can be seen at the ARRL website.

Our nervous system is electrical. We are conductors with some resistance. We can handle small amounts of electricity. A large amount is overload and shock is the warning.

cause its got electricity in it