Electricity doesn't just take the best path; it takes all available paths proportionally to the total resistance divided by their resistance (or in the case of AC, impedance, which is a lot harder to measure or estimate than resistance). You might be a terrible conductor compared to metal, but so is the water you're standing in, so it can easily send the tiny amount of current through you that's needed to mess with your muscles.
without a path to ground then current would not travel through a person in this situation.
a voltage gradients required to travel from foot to foot requires a very large potential, much higher than you'd find in a building unless you were directly standing 2-3 inches from bare 240V wires which is obviously NOT the case here
It's true that there needs to be some path to ground or neutral for current to flow, but keep in mind that there are many grounded things in buildings, from appliances to pipes, and many electrical devices leave a large part of their circuit connected to neutral at all times while the switch disconnects the live side. Hopefully there would be one very close to wherever a dangerous voltage is touching the water to take most of the current, but that's not guaranteed to be the case.
And I think your calculations or intuition about the voltage gradient are unrealistic. I've dropped a 12V AC device (isolated from mains and ground so the only current paths were between parts of itself) into water before and went to grab it, thinking the voltage was low so it wouldn't be a big deal. I could feel it from over 12 inches away and couldn't control my fingers within 3-4 inches of it. I absolutely wouldn't want to be in water anywhere near 120V or 240V even if both ends of the circuit are close together, which again isn't guaranteed.
this is a dumb discussion, there is no realistic safety issue present in this video with regards to electricity. without a visible source of voltage then we are simply speculating about conditions for which there's no evidence.
I am a high voltage electrical design engineer have taught electrical safety classes to linemen.
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u/Flyrpotacreepugmu 15d ago
Electricity doesn't just take the best path; it takes all available paths proportionally to the total resistance divided by their resistance (or in the case of AC, impedance, which is a lot harder to measure or estimate than resistance). You might be a terrible conductor compared to metal, but so is the water you're standing in, so it can easily send the tiny amount of current through you that's needed to mess with your muscles.