The ground (soils) does not confine electrical current to discrete paths in the same way as electrical cables do. It is meaningful to talk about the resistance per foot of a copper wire, but not meaningful to talk about the resistance per foot of a soil path. There is a quantity intrinsic to a material that relates the geometry of the current path to the resistance of the path.
For more information on our technical papers
Stray Current Corrosion
Published by Corrosion Service Company Limited
