If you are one of those
outdoor types who loves to explore dangerous environments, watch closely. This video shows what can
happen when a crocodile decides to eat an electric eel for dinner. It is an amazing, albeit gory, sight
to behold. In a more urbane demonstration of the electric eel's potential (pun intended), an aquarium
in Japan lights a Christmas tree with the charge supplied compliments of the beast in the tank. The
electric
eel is actually not an eel, but a knifefish. It breathes air at the surface, then dives for 10 minute
periods. It can generate up to 500 volts at 1 amp (500 watts), delivered at 10 Hz up to a few hundred
Hz. Recall that it only takes 1/10 amp to kill a man. At 500 V, a body resistance of less than 5 kΩ spells doom.