The electric eel: a living stun gun
About 80% of an electric eel's length is electric organ, built from thousands of flat cells called electrocytes. Each makes about 0.15 volts when a nerve signal lets sodium rush in, and thousands firing at once in a row add up to as much as 860 volts. But voltage is only the push: power is push times flow, and rows side by side add flow, giving around a hundred watts in millisecond pulses. Then there's the twist in its name: it isn't actually an eel.
- 0:00 Mostly battery
- 0:05 Living stun gun
- 0:13 Exploded electric organs
- 0:20 One cell fires
- 0:29 In series: 860 V
- 0:39 Power station: push × flow
- 0:49 Whisper, then full power
- 1:01 It's a knifefish