Recently I came across this article of a man being 'catapulted' across the room: https://news.sky.com/story/desperate-man-was-dead-for-two-minutes-after-being-electrocuted-while-stealing-scrap-to-pay-bills-during-lockdown-12621745
This reminds me of stories I heard of kids sticking metal objects into electrical outlets and getting 'blown across' the house.. what causes this? is there a term for this?
Muscle contractions.
Nerves operate using electrical impulses, and are roughly analogue, so more electric current = muscle pulls harder.
An electric shock causes much larger currents than your nerves normally use, so makes your muscles contract as hard as they can.
You mostly get thrown because the pairs of muscles aren't symmetric - the muscles for straightening your legs are stronger than the ones for bending them. So when both sets of muscles pull harder than they normally should, your legs straighten with more force than normal, and you go flying as if you'd jumped unnaturally hard.
