Regarding skin resistance: the resistance from point to point on the human
body, measured BELOW the skin, is quite low, on the order of 10 to 100
ohms. Typical low voltage, multimeter resistance test of sweaty skin is
about 100k ohms, which indicates that the skin is a pretty good insulator.
However, if you were to break through the topmost layer of the skin
(stratum corneum - can be removed by gentle abrasion, even accidentally),
you would see the resistance drop to a few k Ohms. If a high-ish voltage
(say even 50V) is applied to this, there will be heating effects locally
where it contacts the skin and this may be enough to cause the skin to
break down further, allowing higher current to flow, causing more heat
generation, etc. until the skin is completely broken down at those points
and current is flowing at high levels limited only by the internal body
resistance. This runaway process can happen in a fraction of a second if
high enough current is available.

So, in summary, the point-to-point body resistance is highly nonlinear and
dependent on the duration of contact and many other factors.

In any event, the human body is not really a SHORT circuit by most
definitions of short circuit, but it doesn't have to be to allow serious
injury or death due to electric shock.

Sean
--=20
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