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Two-Points Contact |
| Q.
Why is a two-points contact required for a cow to experience stray voltage? |
| A.
As in all electric circuits, current flow requires the establishment of a closed loop. If there is no conductive loop, there can be no current flow. For a circuit that involves the body of a cow, a two-point contact is required to establish this conductive loop. The current must have a path into the cow and another path out and back to its source.
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Contact with a single point will not allow current to flow, and the cow will not be exposed to stray voltage. In the example above, if the cow's front legs were resting on insulating timber, the current path from the hind to the front legs through the body of the cow would be interrupted and the cow would not perceive any stray voltage. It would be much like birds resting on a high voltage power wire, totally oblivious that they are touching thousands of volts.
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