How can electric fences have a high voltage and low current when current is proportional to voltage?

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As I understand it, voltage is the difference in charge between two points. The greater that difference, the greater the current because more electrons will flow between the two points.

I thought a high resistance might explain this, but apparently the metal in electric fences have very low resistance.

In: Physics

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Anonymous 0 Comments

You have the right idea, high resistance can limit the current flow. The high resistance in this case is in the power supply itself, it can put out a high voltage, but only at low current. Either the power supply actually has a high resistor in series with the output, or it has a switch that flips off or throttles the output power to limit the current.

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