• Question: When a bird sits on a power line why doesn't it get electrocuted like us?

    Asked by catelin_b to Tom, Jennifer, Jen, Imogen, Hephzi on 9 Mar 2015. This question was also asked by Tom.
    • Photo: Thomas Barrett

      Thomas Barrett answered on 9 Mar 2015:

      It’s to do with the connection the bird is making (or rather not making) with the power line.

      Electricity wants to reach the ground. It will do lots of things to get there – but it is lazy and will only take the easy route. If you touch the power cable and you’re still in contact with the ground you make for an easy path for the electricity. The bird isn’t in contact with the ground and has a higher electrical resistance than the wire. So the electricity is too lazy to zapp the bird and carries on in the wire.

      For people fix the power lines they have the insulate themselves so the electricity would find it harder to pass through them than the wire which keeps it from shocking you.

    • Photo: Hephzi Tagoe

      Hephzi Tagoe answered on 9 Mar 2015:

      @catelin_b

      This is basically because as current is flowing through the wire it wants to make its way to the earth. The easiest route is to continue through the wire as metal conducts electricity. The bird on the wire will create a high resistance for the current to flow through and so it stays on the easier path and avoids passing current through the bird.
      Technically if you could balance on the powerline like birds do and not touch anything else the same principle applies and you will not get electrocuted.
      The elctrocution happens when the person on the powerline comes in c0ntact with anything connected to the ground such as a tree or the pole as the resistance is reduced and you create an easy path for the current to reach the earth.

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