Illustration: Bryan Christie Design

WHAT A JOLT: The mild shock from a wool sweater may carry almost as much current as the defibrillator that jolts an errant heart back into action. The effect of a shock on the human body, however, varies greatly with pulse duration and current.

Illustration: Bryan Christie Design

LEVELS OF SHOCK: The Taser X26 puts out 2 milliamperes at 19 hertz. The gun packs its current into 100-microsecond pulses, so it can capture muscle with lower current than if it had been delivered as a sine wave, as the rest of the chart shows.