Everyone has noticed that birds love to stay on the wires of high-voltage poles. Whether in cities or in the countryside, they love to rest on the wires.
Can you tell why animals don't get shocked by wires? energy that can cause serious accidents with human beings? The explanation for this phenomenon lies in Physics and in the explanation of electric current, with the potential differential between two points.
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It's still a curious scene: You're walking in the streets and you don't get tired of seeing different birds resting on poles. What could be fatal to humans doesn't even tickle birds.
The explanation is in physics
When they land with both paws on the wires, they are occupying the surface in more than one spot. To start the electric current, which consists of the movement of electrons over a conducting wire, there must be a potential difference between the ends of this wire.
However, when they land, normally, the birds do not cause a potential difference between the two points, because they touch the same wire. In this sense, no electric current arises and the animals are not affected by electric shocks.
If the bird touches two different points, that is, it is not on the same conductive wire, it could receive an electrical discharge and, depending on the intensity, die.
As the bird's legs are short, it is difficult for him to touch the surface of the wire and another nearby object. For this reason, the birds do not receive electric shocks when they rest on pole wires.
Humans and other animals
The same reasoning applies to humans and any other animal, like the snake above. If a person touches the same wire with both hands, without connecting the body to another object, there will be no shock.
But, as people hold the pole wires with just one hand, or animals bite the wires with their paws on the ground, electric shocks of different intensities happen and can be fatal.
