Most of us think that we get energy just from food for our day to day work but the truth is that we work on electricity. If you have not studied about nervous system and brain then you might not be familiar with the fact that our body works on electricity. Our heart beats due to that electricity, our muscle move due to that electricity and your thinking is dependent on that electricity. Most of these electrical functions are involuntary and we can't do much about that. Even our memory can't function without that electricity. Here in this article we will try to explain how this electricity is generated and how our body works through it.
Why do our body need electricity to transmit messages while it can be done through blood ?
Any liquid travelling from one part of body to other part takes some time, even the minimum time will be a few minutes. Suppose someone is chasing you but your brain sends the signals to your heart to beat faster and to your legs to run, through blood stream. In such case your will start running after a few minutes and in the mean time whole event might have been finished. Electrical signals in nerves travel much faster and hence acts as the fastest medium of communication within our body.
Is there any difference between electricity in wires and nerves ?
Normal current that flow in wires is somehow different from current flowing in our body. In wires flow of electrons, which are negative charge particles, is known as current. While in our nerves sodium ions and potassium ions do this work, not electrons. Due to this reason some people don't distinguish it as electricity in human body, but still it is some sort of charge and it flows really fast. However speed of electrons in wires is much faster than speed of ions in nerves. Flow of ions in nerves can also be called as nerve impulse. Speed of nerve impulses differ from each other depending on the type of nerve. Nerve impulses to send a pain signal travels slower at 0.61 m/s. Touch signals travel at high speeds of 76.2 m/s. But you can't compare any of these nerve impulses with the spped of real electricity in wires i.e. 200,000,000 m/s . Don't get disappointed as at max the nerve impulse can travel at 119m/s which is more than speed of a formula 1 racing car.
Is there any difference between electricity in wires and nerves ?
Normal current that flow in wires is somehow different from current flowing in our body. In wires flow of electrons, which are negative charge particles, is known as current. While in our nerves sodium ions and potassium ions do this work, not electrons. Due to this reason some people don't distinguish it as electricity in human body, but still it is some sort of charge and it flows really fast. However speed of electrons in wires is much faster than speed of ions in nerves. Flow of ions in nerves can also be called as nerve impulse. Speed of nerve impulses differ from each other depending on the type of nerve. Nerve impulses to send a pain signal travels slower at 0.61 m/s. Touch signals travel at high speeds of 76.2 m/s. But you can't compare any of these nerve impulses with the spped of real electricity in wires i.e. 200,000,000 m/s . Don't get disappointed as at max the nerve impulse can travel at 119m/s which is more than speed of a formula 1 racing car.
Nerves act as wires in the body
All organs and muscles in our body are connected to our brain through our nervous system, which is just like wires connected from brain to all body parts for proper controlling. However in reality these are not wires but nerve cells which are connected to each other and carry to-and-fro electrical signals between brain and all parts of body. We have got 90,000 miles of nerves in our body which is even more than length of blood vessels in body, which is just 60,000 miles.
How does current flow in our nerves ?
Our nerve cells are specially created cells for transmission of signals. Nerve cells have several dendrites and one axon. Axon terminals are used to transmit while dendrites receive the signal. The flow of current across neurons is just like a relay race. One neuron receives a signal and passes it on to next. Ions travel only in some part of cell and rest is done by electric field. When our body needs to sends a signal, it opens the membrane gate, which let the Na and K ions move freely in and out of neuron. Negative Potassium ions leave the cell due to positive charge outside and positively charged sodium ions enter it. This switch in charge generates an electrical impulse which opens the gate of next neuron and in this way the transmission reaches the destination.Sometimes people try to find how much current can flow through neurons. The answer is not what people think as it is ions, not electrons and these ions are not racing, but relay racing. However some resting potential in terms of millivolts is measured. Resting potential of a cell is around -70mV. Electrical property of cells and neurons are determined the membrane surrounding it. So don't try to know the ampere value of current flowing in human body as different websites will give different answers.
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