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Home / Technical Articles / Electric Shock Current, Where Does It Go?

Electric Shock

As we’ve already know, electricity requires a complete path (circuit) to continuously flow. This is why the shock received from static electricity is only a momentary jolt: the flow of electrons is necessarily brief when static charges are equalized between two objects.

Electric shock current, where does it go?
Electric shock current, where does it go? (photo by Jennifer Su at Flickr)

Shocks of self-limited duration like this are rarely hazardous.

Without two contact points on the body for current to enter and exit, respectively, there is no hazard of shock. This is why birds can safely rest on high-voltage power lines without getting shocked: they make contact with the circuit at only one point.

Bird not shocked
Bird not shocked

In order for electrons to flow through a conductor, there must be a voltage present to motivate them. Voltage, as you should recall, is always relative between two points. There is no such thing as voltage ”on” or ”at” a single point in the circuit, and so the bird contacting a single point in the above circuit has no voltage applied across its body to establish a current through it.

Yes, even though they rest on two feet, both feet are touching the same wire, making them electrically common. Electrically speaking, both of the bird’s feet touch the same point, hence there is no voltage between them to motivate current through the bird’s body.

This might lend one to believe that its impossible to be shocked by electricity by only touching a single wire. Like the birds, if we’re sure to touch only one wire at a time, we’ll be safe, right? Unfortunately, this is not correct. Unlike birds, people are usually standing on the ground when they contact a ”live” wire.

Many times, one side of a power system will be intentionally connected to earth ground, and so the person touching a single wire is actually making contact between two points in the circuit (the wire and earth ground):

Bird not shocked, person shocked
Bird not shocked, person shocked


The ground symbol is that set of three horizontal bars of decreasing width located at the lower-left of the circuit shown, and also at the foot of the person being shocked. In real life the power system ground consists of some kind of metallic conductor buried deep in the ground for making maximum contact with the earth. That conductor is electrically connected to an appropriate connection point on the circuit with thick wire.

The victim’s ground connection is through their feet, which are touching the earth.

A few questions usually arise at this point in the mind of the student:

  1. If the presence of a ground point in the circuit provides an easy point of contact for someone to get shocked, why have it in the circuit at all? Wouldn’t a ground-less circuit be safer?
  2. The person getting shocked probably isn’t bare-footed. If rubber and fabric are insulating materials, then why aren’t their shoes protecting them by preventing a circuit from forming?
  3. How good of a conductor can dirt be? If you can get shocked by current through the earth, why not use the earth as a conductor in our power circuits?

In answer to the first question, the presence of an intentional ”grounding” point in an electric circuit is intended to ensure that one side of it is safe to come in contact with.

Note that if our victim in the above diagram were to touch the bottom side of the resistor, nothing would happen even though their feet would still be contacting ground:

Bird not shocked, person not shocked
Bird not shocked, person not shocked

Because the bottom side of the circuit is firmly connected to ground through the grounding point on the lower-left of the circuit, the lower conductor of the circuit is made electrically common with earth ground. Since there can be no voltage between electrically common points, there will be no voltage applied across the person contacting the lower wire, and they will not receive a shock.

For the same reason, the wire connecting the circuit to the grounding rod/plates is usually left bare (no insulation), so that any metal object it brushes up against will similarly be electrically common with the earth.

Circuit grounding ensures that at least one point in the circuit will be safe to touch. But what about leaving a circuit completely ungrounded?

Wouldn’t that make any person touching just a single wire as safe as the bird sitting on just one? Ideally, yes. Practically, no. Observe what happens with no ground at all:

Bird not shocked, person not shocked, with no ground at all
Bird not shocked, person not shocked, with no ground at all

Despite the fact that the person’s feet are still contacting ground, any single point in the circuit should be safe to touch. Since there is no complete path (circuit) formed through the person’s body from the bottom side of the voltage source to the top, there is no way for a current to be established through the person.

However, this could all change with an accidental ground, such as a tree branch touching a power line and providing connection to earth ground:

Bird not shocked, person shocked with high voltage across source and oad
Bird not shocked, person shocked with high voltage across source and oad

Such an accidental connection between a power system conductor and the earth (ground) is called a ground fault. Ground faults may be caused by many things, including dirt buildup on power line insulators (creating a dirty-water path for current from the conductor to the pole, and to the ground, when it rains), ground water infiltration in buried power line conductors, and birds landing on power lines, bridging the line to the pole with their wings.

Given the many causes of ground faults, they tend to be unpredicatable. In the case of trees, no one can guarantee which wire their branches might touch.

If a tree were to brush up against the top wire in the circuit, it would make the top wire safe to touch and the bottom one dangerous – just the opposite of the previous scenario where the tree contacts the bottom wire:

Bird not shocked, person shocked with high voltage across source and load
Bird not shocked, person shocked with high voltage across source and load

With a tree branch contacting the top wire, that wire becomes the grounded conductor in the circuit, electrically common with earth ground. Therefore, there is no voltage between that wire and ground, but full (high) voltage between the bottom wire and ground.

As mentioned previously, tree branches are only one potential source of ground faults in a power system.

Consider an ungrounded power system with no trees in contact, but this time with two people touching single wires:

Bird shocked, persons shocked with high voltage across source and load
Bird shocked, persons shocked with high voltage across source and load

With each person standing on the ground, contacting different points in the circuit, a path for shock current ismade through one person, through the earth, and through the other person.

Even though each person thinks they’re safe in only touching a single point in the circuit, their combined actions create a deadly scenario. In effect, one person acts as the ground fault which makes it unsafe for the other person. This is exactly why ungrounded power systems are dangerous: the voltage between any point in the circuit and ground (earth) is unpredictable, because a ground fault could appear at any point in the circuit at any time.

The only character guaranteed to be safe in these scenarios is the bird, who has no connection to earth ground at all!

By firmly connecting a designated point in the circuit to earth ground (”grounding” the circuit), at least safety can be assured at that one point. This is more assurance of safety than having no ground connection at all.

In answer to the second question, rubber-soled shoes do indeed provide some electrical insulation to help protect someone from conducting shock current through their feet. However, most common shoe designs are not intended to be electrically ”safe,” their soles being too thin and not of the right substance.

Also, any moisture, dirt, or conductive salts from body sweat on the surface of or permeated through the soles of shoes will compromise what little insulating value the shoe had to begin with. There are shoes specifically made for dangerous electrical work, as well as thick rubber mats made to stand on while working on live circuits, but these special pieces of gear must be in absolutely clean, dry condition in order to be effective.

Suffice it to say, normal footwear is not enough to guarantee protection against electric shock from a power system.

Research conducted on contact resistance between parts of the human body and points of contact (such as the ground) shows a wide range of figures:

  • Hand or foot contact, insulated with rubber: 20 M typical
  • Foot contact through leather shoe sole (dry): 100 k to 500 k
  • Foot contact through leather shoe sole (wet): 5 k to 20 k
As you can see, not only is rubber a far better insulating material than leather, but the presence of water in a porous substance such as leather greatly reduces electrical resistance. In answer to the third question, dirt is not a very good conductor (at least not when its dry!).

It is too poor of a conductor to support continuous current for powering a load. However, as we will see in the next section, it takes very little current to injure or kill a human being, so even the poor conductivity of dirt is enough to provide a path for deadly current when there is sufficient voltage available, as there usually is in power systems.

Some ground surfaces are better insulators than others. Asphalt, for instance, being oilbased, has a much greater resistance than most forms of dirt or rock. Concrete, on the other hand, tends to have fairly low resistance due to its intrinsic water and electrolyte (conductive chemical) content.


Conclusion

Electric shock can only occur when contact is made between two points of a circuit; when voltage is applied across a victim’s body.

Power circuits usually have a designated point that is ”grounded:” firmly connected to metal rods or plates buried in the dirt to ensure that one side of the circuit is always at ground potential (zero voltage between that point and earth ground).

A ground fault is an accidental connection between a circuit conductor and the earth (ground).

Special, insulated shoes and mats are made to protect persons from shock via ground conduction, but even these pieces of gear must be in clean, dry condition to be effective. Normal footwear is not good enough to provide protection from shock by insulating its wearer from the earth.

Though dirt is a poor conductor, it can conduct enough current to injure or kill a human being.

Resource: Lessons in electric circuits Volume I – DC

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Edvard Csanyi

Electrical engineer, programmer and founder of EEP. Highly specialized for design of LV/MV switchgears and LV high power busbar trunking (<6300A) in power substations, commercial buildings and industry facilities. Professional in AutoCAD programming.

16 Comments


  1. Ferdinand Ndansack
    May 02, 2022

    This is an amazing explaination,very underndable!


  2. Md. Ashraful Islam
    Jul 18, 2019

    Thank you sir.
    A very good clear conception explanation indeed.


  3. Olakunle Roleola
    Jul 16, 2019

    Thank you for the article. I would like you to talk about “step and touch potential” as it is related to electric shock in the nearest future.


  4. David Tulip
    Jul 14, 2019

    Excellent explanation, I have worked as an electrical engineer for 40 years, very good example


  5. David Tulip
    Jul 14, 2019

    Excellent explanation, I have worked as an electrical engineer for 40 years plus, very good example


  6. Timothy Kapak
    Jul 13, 2019

    Sir,

    Thank you for excellent explanation!!


  7. Harold Narvaez
    Jul 13, 2019

    It would be great if you could give an example about how many amperes cause dangerous effects on human bodies. I think it’s in the range of 0.5A and 1 A. Thanks Edvard.


  8. Akansha
    Jul 13, 2019

    What happens in case of AC supply? As in this case we cannot one point in circuit is safe to touch.


  9. Olakunle Roleola
    Jul 13, 2019

    Hi, nice article. I would like you to talk about step and touch potential as it is also related to electric shock. I look forward to hearing from you sooner.

    Thank you.


  10. abdulkadir
    Mar 17, 2017

    Thank you sir
    I have got v good ides about electric shock
    I have a back ground LV housing wiring system but I have a long time dream to learn more. I need your help to direct me which institute could I contact to study more on electrical.
    Thanks & regards


  11. Daniel
    Feb 01, 2015

    Excellent! It helps me to understand many “mixed concepts” about electricity, specifically Power System Concepts. Thanks!


  12. cute
    Apr 02, 2013

    shocked or not if man hanging on 1 phase out of 3. please answer….


  13. kvahamadkutty2
    Dec 17, 2012

    Thank you Mr. Edvad for giving a very good explanation of grounding neutral side of a system. there are some more advantages in grounding of a system such that the system protective equipments will function properly on a grounded system than an ungrounded system and also to eliminate floating neutral when there is an unbalance in a 3 phase system etc..


  14. Ibrahim Seder
    Dec 14, 2012

    Hi Edvard, first of all thank you for your activity in the field,but I think that in case of birds on high voltage power lines the situation is different because some current may pass the bird’s body which represents some resisters , the entry point is first leg the out one is the second so because of the resistance of the cable current between these tow points is negligible so there is no current passes ,but in case of lightning which some currents accedes 40KA, many birds shocked and electrocuted.


  15. boedyzoldik
    Dec 14, 2012

    Hello mr. edvard, thank you for your explanation. now i am understand, but exactly i still afraid to touch a wire, i am working in electronic company, and i learn about switch mode power supply, some times i handle a problem, and i often do a mistake, and made explosion. it make me always afraid with electric shock. up to now i feel so stupid because i afraid with electric shock.


    • Edvard
      Dec 14, 2012

      You’re welcome Boedyzoldik.

      It’s very important to understand electric shock impacts on human body and how to avoid it after all.

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