Question

On our return from an excursion trip in our school, I noticed a bird sitting on a high voltage electric wire. I curiously noticed the bird and found to my surprise that the bird flew off after sometime without any electrical shock. This incident made me think of another incident that took place near my house last week where, a boy, who climbed to take a kite, got severe jolt of electric current. I immediately approached my school physics teacher for an explanation. My teacher explained the effect of electrical current which I told my mother that evening.

(i) What are the values associated with the above incident ?

(ii) What would be the explanation given by the physics teacher ?

Answer 1

(i) Observation, eagerness to learn.   

(ii) Both the legs of the bird are at same voltage and  hence no current passes; to receive a shock, there  must be a potential difference between one part  of the body and another; if a person hangs from a  high voltage wire without touching anything else,  he can be quite safe and would not feel shock.