• Home
  • Courses
  • Machines
    • Transformer
    • AC Motors
      • Induction Motor
      • Synchronous Motor
    • DC Motor
    • DC Generator
  • Power System
    • Circuit Breaker
    • Switchgear
    • Substation
    • Control System
    • Measurement
  • Electronics
  • Blog
  • Contact
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
Have any question?
[email protected]
RegisterLogin
StudyElectrical.Com
  • Home
  • Courses
  • Machines
    • Transformer
    • AC Motors
      • Induction Motor
      • Synchronous Motor
    • DC Motor
    • DC Generator
  • Power System
    • Circuit Breaker
    • Switchgear
    • Substation
    • Control System
    • Measurement
  • Electronics
  • Blog
  • Contact
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy

Interview Questions

Why Birds don’t get Electrocuted on Touching Power Lines?

  • Categories Interview Questions
bird on power line no electrocution

You may be amazed at why the birds don’t get shocked when they sit on high voltage overhead power lines. People often ask why don’t birds get electrocuted on power lines. The possible reasons are discussed in this article.

An electric shock is caused by a flow of current through a body. So for the bird to be shocked there would need to be a current running through her body. The current will only flow through a closed path.

There is no current running through the bird’s body for two reasons.

Bird on Power Line
Bird on Power Line

The first reason is that the bird’s body has a high resistance, so the current would rather pass through the wire instead of the bird. Electricity flows along the path of least resistance.

Read Electrical Engineering Basics

  • Since the current can go through the wire or through the bird to get to the same point, you can think of the wire as being a highway and the bird as a one-way mountainous country road.
  • It is easier for the current to pass through the highway (or wire) than it would take the harder mountainous route (the bird).

The second reason and more important is that in order for current to flow through the bird there must be a voltage across the bird’s body.

  • Since the bird is careful to have both feet on the same wire there is not enough voltage across the bird’s body to allow current to flow. The voltage difference is negligible.
  • If the bird were to touch the wire and at the same time the ground or some object connected to the ground, it would receive a deadly shock.

Power lines are extremely dangerous and should always be avoided. Touching a power line is strictly ‘for the birds’.

Related Articles

  • Auto Reclosing principle
    Auto Reclosing of Power Lines and Types of Faults

    The goal of the auto reclosing in power lines is to restore the line to…

  • GFCI Wiring
    Why Neutral Grounding or Neutral Earthing is Essential?

    In the power system, grounding or earthing means connecting the frame of electrical equipment (non-current…

  • Voltage 2Bconrol 2Bin 2Bpowr 2Bsystem
    Why Voltage Control is Important?

      In a modern power system, electrical energy from the generating station is delivered to…

  • why we need power system protection
    Why we need Power System Protection?

    In this article, you will learn the importance of protection in the modern power system…

  • surge
    Voltage Surge in Power System

    What is Voltage Surge or Transient Voltage? The sudden rise in voltage for a very…

  • Types of Power plants
    Types of Power Plants

    What is the Power Plant? A power plant is an assembly of systems or subsystems…

  • Share:
author avatar
Electrical Engineer

Previous post

Effects of Variable Load on Power Station
July 10, 2015

Next post

Breaker Failure Relay (Back-up Protection Relay)
July 16, 2015

You may also like

Types-of-Electric-current
Types of Electric Current – Steady (DC), Varying & Alternating (AC) Current
5 November, 2019
DC generator problem 1
6 DC Generator Problems with Solution – Types of DC Generator
18 January, 2018
interview question circuit breaker
Circuit Breakers – Interview Questions with Answers
26 May, 2016

    1 Comment

  1. A.M.Keerthivasan
    January 11, 2019
    Reply

    excellent

Leave A Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Search Here

From Blog

lights-multicolor-led
How Multicolor RGB (Red Green Yellow) LEDs Work?
20Nov2017
Types of Inductors
Inductors and Inductance : Working, Unit, Function, Types and Uses
11Nov2019
Fundamentals of Electric Circuits
Fundamentals of Electric Circuits
06Apr2020
Three wattmeter method of measuring three phase power
Measurement of Three Phase Power | Wattmeter Methods
02Jan2019

Categories

  • Alternator
  • Arduino
  • Basic Electrical
  • Battery
  • Books
  • Cables
  • Capacitor
  • Career
  • Circuit Breaker
  • Control System
  • DC Generator
  • DC Motor
  • Drives
  • Electric Vehicles
  • Electrical Circuits
  • Electrical Machines
  • Electrical Relays
  • Electrical Safety
  • Electronics
  • Embedded System
  • Exams
  • Generation
  • Guest Post
  • HVDC
  • Instrumentation
  • Interview Questions
  • Locomotives
  • Measurement
  • Microcontroller
  • Objective Questions
  • PCB
  • PLC
  • Power System
  • Problems and Solution
  • Projects
  • Resistor
  • Signals and Systems
  • Single Phase Motors
  • Substation
  • Switchgear
  • Synchronous Motor
  • Three Phase Induction Motor
  • Transformer
  • Transmission Line
  • Uncategorized

Copyright © 2021 Study Electrical, Inc.

© StudyElectrical.Com 2021

Login with your site account

Lost your password?

Not a member yet? Register now

Register a new account

Are you a member? Login now