if you touch a wire and you’re not grounded, you wont get harmed, why?

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I understand why you get harmed if you’re grounded, you’re becoming part of the wire and the electricity is going from you to the earth. what I dont understand is, why the electricity doesnt harm you when youre not touching the ground, isnt it going through you either way? how does it not affect your body?

In: Physics

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Anonymous 0 Comments

> isnt it going through you either way?

not really. current follows “the path of least resistance”. you are a really bad conductor, but 6 feet through you to reach the ground is less total resistance than the miles of wire back to the substation.

if you aren’t touching the ground, you’re just a few feet of really high resistance to get 6 feet closer to the substation, so the current keeps going through the wire, instead.

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