Why don’t birds sitting on a power line get electrocuted?

Why don’t birds sitting on a power line get electrocuted? If a bird sits on just one power line it is safe. However if it touches another line with a wing or foot, it creates a circuit and the electricity will flow through its body from one line to the other, causing electrocution.

Other Facts About Electricity

Electricity travels at the speed of light - more than 300,000 kilometres per second! Electric potential energy is measured in volts.

A spark of static electricity can measure up to three thousand (3,000) volts.

A bolt of lightning can measure up to three million (3,000,000) volts and it lasts less than one second.

Lightning is a discharge of electricity in the atmosphere. Lightning bolts can travel at around 210,000 kph, and reach nearly 30,000 °C in temperature.

Electricity always tries to find the easiest path to the ground.

When energy is flowing, that is called a current.

Electricity can be made from wind, water, the sun and even animal poo.

A 600 megawatt natural gas plant can power 220,000 homes.

The first power plant - owned by Thomas Edison - opened in New York City in 1882.

Thomas Edison invented more than 2,000 new products, including almost everything needed for us to use electricity in our homes: switches, fuses, sockets and meters.

Benjamin Franklin didn’t discover electricity, but he did prove that lightning is a form of electrical energy.

When an electric charge builds up on the surface of an object it creates static electricity.

Electric current is measured in amperes (amps).

Electric eels can produce strong electric shocks of around 500 volts for both self defence and hunting.

The first electric battery was developed by Alessandro Volta about 200 years ago. He discovered that when two strips of different metals were put in a sulphuric acid solution and connected with a wire, electricity began to flow.

Voltage means electrical pressure. You can think of it like the pressure that pushes water through your garden hose. The higher the voltage the more electricity there is flowing through the power line.