All of we know that a current always follow the path having less resistant, so if it is true than why we shock?

Question

All of we know that a current always follow the path having less resistant, so if it is true than why we shock or receive a jerk when we touch a live wire if the wire resistant is much less than our body resistance, take an example of copper wire having a resistance of 25 ohm and a human body having of max. several mega ohm depends on the conditions. Why in this case current doesn't follow the low resistance path?

Answer 1

No see, current only flows in a closed circuit.

When a wire is left bare, or left open, no current I actually flowing through it. Because the circuit is not closed, it is not complete.

But when we touch it, we behave as an extension of the circuit, we conduct the electricity. This is because current only flows when there is a potential difference. As we know, the earth (or ground) is at 0V potential.

And since we are in contact with the ground when we are touching the bare wire, we Complete the circuit, therefore current flows through us.



But also notice, that when wear rubber slippers, or any insulating material like rubber, we stop the current from flowing through us. Because the circuit is not closed again ! The rubber doesn't not conduct electricity, so the current doesn't pass through us. So we don't get a shock.



Getting a shock basically means that current is passing through you.



Understand? :)

Answer 2

To be precise you are providing the path for the current and there is no other alternate path available here ,therefore this path through you is the path of least resistance.

Answer 3

"All of we know that a current always follow the path having less resistant..."

That's wrong. The current is inversely proportional to resistance.



Suppose you have 2 routes, a 100Ω route and a 1Ω route. The current flows through BOTH routes. But the current through the 1Ω route is 100 times bigger than the current through the 100Ω route.



A live copper wire is only 1 part of a circuit. It will be connected to something else with a higher resistance. So when you touch the wire, the current now has 2 path. One path is through you. The other path is through whatever the wire is connected to. Some of the current will go through you. The fact that the copper wire has a low resistance is irrelevant.