You’re wearing boots that prevent you from being electrocuted and touch an ungrounded hot wire. How are these boots preventing electric shock?
In: Engineering
Think of an electrical circuit like a closed loop pipe of water. A wire is like the pipe, and electrons like the water, voltage like the water pressure, and water flow rate is amperage. A person touching a live supply wire is like someone magically inserting a tee in the pipe, with their body as the newly connected pipe. If there’s a way for the water escape through the new pipe, the water will take the path of least resistance, eroding the hell out of the new pipe. But if the pipe’s capped, and the water can’t go anywhere, the new pipe will fill with water, but no water will flow through the pipe. Electricity works the same way; it needs to flow from a supply to a ground. If you touch a live wire while wearing non-conductive boots, you’ll get shocked as the wire brings you to whatever voltage it is, but there won’t be electricity flowing through you. The human body can take voltage changes, but it’s wrecked if electricity flows through it. Non-conductive boots basically act like a cap in a pipe; preventing high pressure water/high voltage electricity from flowing to atmospheric air/ground.
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