Travels of Electricity Electrical Safety-SMART! Home

Electricity Travels Through Conductors

A conductor is a material that electricity can flow through easily.

Metals (such as copper and aluminum) are good conductors. That's why electrical wires are made of metal. All the wires that lead from power plants to substations and transformers and finally into buildings have metal inside them for electricity to travel on.

Water is another great conductor. Because your body is mostly water, electricity can also travel easily through you. (Warning: if electricity travels through you, it's likely you will be seriously hurt or even killed.)

Electricity travels at the speed of light. At 186,000 miles per second, it gives you no time to react! You can't move faster than electricity, so you just have to stay out of its way.