The Physics of a Bird on a Wire: Why Doesn’t It Get Shocked?

Photo: Rhett Allain. Yup. It’s a bird. It’s on a wire.

Question: An overhead power line can be at 1000 volts. Why doesn’t a bird sitting on a wire get shocked? Do birds just have +5 to their saving roles against electric attacks?

Game on. Let’s do this.

Physics of Getting Shocked

Personally, I HATE getting an electric shock. It doesn’t matter even if it’s a static electric shock getting out of the car in the winter. I just don’t like it. You might be the same way. But what determines the intensity of an electric shock? It’s mostly just dependent on one thing — electric current.

Remember that an electric current is when electric charges move through some material. We define the current (I) as the rate of change of electric charge (Q) per time. If the charge is in units of Coulombs and the time in seconds, we get 1 Ampere (or just amp) is equal to 1 Coulomb per second.

For humans, we can normally feel an electric current of 1 milliAmpere (mA) and once you get up to 100–300 mA bad things start to happen. I’m not really sure how well different birds can handle current — but let’s assume it’s similar to humans.

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