Electrical Safety

Section 4

Becoming part of a Circuit

By touching a down power line, a person could create a short circuit to Earth through his or her body. A short circuit is a connection that allows current to take an unintended path.

Exposed Wires

Fallen high-voltage power lines are not the only potential source of electric shocks. Many people are hurt or killed by shocks from common household circuits. Current ows when there is voltage just like current ows through your body.

Resisting Current

The soles of your shoes will normally provide a large resistance between your feet and the surface of Earth. If youre barefoot, or standing in the bath tub when you touch the circuit, your resistance will be smaller. Ordinary tap water is not a very good conductor of electricity, but it does decrease your resistance.

Grounding

Additional grounding wires protect people from shocks. If a short circuit occurs in a device, current will go directly into Earth through a low-resistance grounding wire. In this way, a person who touches the device will be protected.

Third Prong

A plug with the two at prongs connect the appliance to the household circuit, where a plug with a third prong connects the metal shell of an appliance. In order to protect people from shocks, electrical systems are grounded. A circuit is electrically grounded when charges are able to ow directly from the circuit into the ground connection in the event of a short circuit.

Lighting Rods

A lighting rod is a metal rod mounted on the roof of a building in order to protect a building. Lighting results from the transfer of charge from a charged cloud to an oppositely charged object on Earth. A lighting rod is connected to a grounding wire. When lighting strikes the rod, charges ow through the rod, into the wire, and then into the Earth, which protects the building.

A wire that carries more current than it is designed to carry will become hot, and if it gets too hot, it can melt the insulation on the wire. Electric current can become too high if a circuit is overloaded. In order to prevent circuits from overheating, devices called fuses and circuit breakers are added to circuits. A fuse is a device that contains a thin strip of metal that will melt if too much current ows through it. A circuit breaker is a safety device that uses an electromagnet to shut off the circuit when the current gets too high.

Fuses and Circuit Breakers

Electric Shocks

The human body depends on electrical signals. Tiny electrical pulses, for example, control the beating of your heart. Electrical signals, too, control your breathing and the movement of your muscles. If your body receives an electrical current from a source outside it, the current will interfere with the normal processes within your body.

Current in the Body

The shock you feel from static discharge after walking across a carpet on a dry day is not the same as the shock from touching a fallen power line. The severity of an electric shock depends on the current. A current of less than 0.01 amp is almost unnoticeable, but between 0.1 amp and 0.2 amp can be dangerous. This strong of a current could cause an irregular heartbeat and disrupt the ow of blood to your body. A current entering your hand can travel through your arm and across your heart, but currents greater than 0.2 amp cause burns and can stop your heart.

Resistance in the Body

The current of an electric shock is related to voltage and resistance. The current that results from that voltage depends on the resistance of the human body. If your skin is very dry,your resistance might be very high, but when your skin is wet, your resistance might be hundreds of times lower.