• Question: Why is it that if humans touch a telephone wire with a fishing rod, they get electrocuted, but putting two wires against your body to complete a circuit doesn't pass through?

    Asked by christiancox to Fiona, Joanna on 25 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Fiona Randall

      Fiona Randall answered on 25 Jun 2010:

      I feel I should know the answer to this. I think it is overhead power cables that can send electricity down the fishing rod and the electricity just passes through you as you are connected to it and then to the ground where the current can go. They tell you to wear rubber soles in lightning storms so the current cannot pass through them as this can break the circuit of you get struck. I think if you put 2 wires into yourself and they were connected to an electricity source you would get electrocuted so please don’t try it! Sorry I can’t give you a definite correct answer. Maybe ask your physics teacher? 🙂

    • Photo: Joanna Brooks

      Joanna Brooks answered on 25 Jun 2010:

      Hello again, good question! If you touch a telephone wire with a fishing rod or another metal object there is low resistance which means the electric current can pass through the metal very easily (the metal conducts the electricity). But the human body is different because it is insulated by skin and tissue and so it is more resistant than metal. Of course, the body still conducts some current but not as much as metal.

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