- #1
feihong47
- 27
- 0
Homework Statement
:[/B]
This is such a basic question that even though it's not a HW problem, I don't know where else to put it. Please see http://i.imgur.com/3O5YrAP.jpg .
Why does the person on top get shocked and not at the bottom? More specifically, why is there a current through the dirt on top, but not at the bottom? The only difference in the figure is that the top person is touching a point across a resistor where electrons would flow, whereas the bottom person isn't. Why would that somehow make a difference?
I got an answer from another source but I don't understand their explanation. It is that there is no voltage potential difference on the bottom between the source and the person, but there is one on top. Why would there be a potential difference on top figure but not on the bottom figure? I can see that in the bottom figure, electrons flows out of the source to the ground, then can go through the ground to the person and then back to the resistor and back to the (+) terminal, completing the circuit, so why is there no voltage drop in that sense?
please see this figure http://imgur.com/L6BpS15