A body contact or body fault is a conductive connection between body and active parts of electrical equipment resulting from a fault. A body, short or ground fault is: Perfect (direct) contact If there is no fault resistance in the circuit Imperfect (indirect) contact If a fault resistance is present in the circuit (e.g. wet branch, arc) This can be caused by installation errors or defects, such as cable breaks. There is a risk of electric shock when touching the parts of the system under voltage by the body joint. As a countermeasure, so-called protective conductors and residual current circuit breakers are used in electrical engineering. See also Power engineering Electrical fault References Power engineering