Man grabs high voltage wire while on top of train..... does not end well

[Sea Moose]

Originally posted by: jjsole
If he jumped and touched it mid-air and let go before landing back on the train, would he have gotten fried?

Maybe, maybe not. Remember that birds sit safetly on overhead powerlines. Its only that his body was touching an active wire and his feet was touching earth, he became a human light bulb.

 

[BW86]

damn - he was smoking

 

[olds]

What a shame.
A shame that he didn't fall further backwards. He would have landed on the platform and no one would have had to climb up to get him.

 

[Sea Moose]

Originally posted by: Special K

Originally posted by: CountZero

Originally posted by: Special K

Originally posted by: LordMorpheus
For the system to detect a fault severe enough for it to cycle like that, maybe there is something else at work here? Surely the train draws on the order of several hundred kW to run, so how would half an amp trip the system?

Good point.

I'd imagine its something like this. It detects a difference in current in and out essentially. So the guy was pulling current to earth ground and not completing the normal circuit.

Ah, so basically like the GFCI's you find in household bathroom outlets.

Wouldn't it still be pretty dangerous to automatically restart the high voltage line, and so soon after the fault is detected? With household bathroom outlets, you have to manually push the reset switch on the outlet after the breaker trips. Not that it mattered much for the guy in this video, as I imagine he was probably dead after the first pulse.

You wouldnt find GFCIs on high voltage circuits like that train supply.

GFCIs are on dommestic and commercial power socket and lighting circuits. GFCIs trip when they detect an imbalance in the active and neutral wire.

Basically: GCFIs protect people.
: Fuses/ circuit breakers protect wiring and equipment

High voltage lines from the video would have fuses or circuit breakers, but not gfcis. From my previous calculations i dont think there was enough current passing the guys body to trip the breakers for the high voltage lines. Are there any electrical engineers here that can help me out here?

 

[OutHouse]

Originally posted by: Sea Moose
Lets put this into perspective.

240v supply with a kettle with a resistance of say 26ohms

ohms law = V/R=I

Therfore 240volts/26ohms = 9amps


The man in the video.

The human body has a resistance of about 50,000 ohms(this varies from person to person)
The voltage on the site says the main line voltage is either 1.5kv DC or 25kV AC.

We can calculate both figures using ohms law.

1 500volts/50 000ohms = .3amps <--- Thats right, less than one amp.

25 000volts/50 000 = .5amps <--- Also less that one amp.

nerd

The interesting thing is his power output

When charcol gary is drawing .3amp his power output is 45watts <--- Comparable to a light globe
When charcol gary is drawing .5amp his power output is 12500watts <--- comparable to an air conditioning unit for a small house.

Take this into account

.001amps to 0.01 = threshold of sensation
.01amp to .1amp = painful shock, cannot let go, muscular paralysis, severe shock, breathing difficultys
0.1amps to 0.2 amps = death
0.2amps to 1.0amp = severe burning.




May i remind all to be careful around electricity please. may i also point out that his arms go rigid.

 

[Q]

Originally posted by: Sea Moose
Lets put this into perspective.

240v supply with a kettle with a resistance of say 26ohms

ohms law = V/R=I

Therfore 240volts/26ohms = 9amps


The man in the video.

The human body has a resistance of about 50,000 ohms(this varies from person to person)
The voltage on the site says the main line voltage is either 1.5kv DC or 25kV AC.

We can calculate both figures using ohms law.

1 500volts/50 000ohms = .3amps <--- Thats right, less than one amp.

25 000volts/50 000 = .5amps <--- Also less that one amp.



The interesting thing is his power output

When charcol gary is drawing .3amp his power output is 45watts <--- Comparable to a light globe
When charcol gary is drawing .5amp his power output is 12500watts <--- comparable to an air conditioning unit for a small house.

Take this into account

.001amps to 0.01 = threshold of sensation
.01amp to .1amp = painful shock, cannot let go, muscular paralysis, severe shock, breathing difficultys
0.1amps to 0.2 amps = death
0.2amps to 1.0amp = severe burning.




May i remind all to be careful around electricity please. may i also point out that his arms go rigid.

Rubycon, is that you?

(BTW I blanked out on her name and spent 10 minutes searching)

 

[apac]

Jesus it looked like a human sized bug-zapper.

 

[Gothgar]

at least they can get with moving the train now?

 

[HardcoreRobot]

the way he falls is insane

 

[Miramonti]

Nothing like the smell of burning flesh in the morning...

Its amazing how black he gets...I thought that was just in the cartoons.

 

[Insomniator]

wow pwned

 

[us3rnotfound]

Anyone else watch the zapping part at least 5 times in rapid succession? :Q

 

[spidey07]

That guy was pretty animated. A real live wire if you will.

 

[zoiks]

So I suppose the current passing through charcoal gary didn't have enough oomph to zap any of the people touching the train?

 

[Q]

I feel terrible laughing at this, but Charcoal Gary (the name) makes me giggle everytime

 

[Krazy4Real]

Yikes!

 

[IGBT]

LRV overhead is 600 volts. not shure what they use in india. lets see how many copykats step up to the live wire.

 

[MrDudeMan]

Originally posted by: Quintox

Originally posted by: Sea Moose
Lets put this into perspective.

240v supply with a kettle with a resistance of say 26ohms

ohms law = V/R=I

Therfore 240volts/26ohms = 9amps


The man in the video.

The human body has a resistance of about 50,000 ohms(this varies from person to person)
The voltage on the site says the main line voltage is either 1.5kv DC or 25kV AC.

We can calculate both figures using ohms law.

1 500volts/50 000ohms = .3amps <--- Thats right, less than one amp.

25 000volts/50 000 = .5amps <--- Also less that one amp.



The interesting thing is his power output

When charcol gary is drawing .3amp his power output is 45watts <--- Comparable to a light globe
When charcol gary is drawing .5amp his power output is 12500watts <--- comparable to an air conditioning unit for a small house.

Take this into account

.001amps to 0.01 = threshold of sensation
.01amp to .1amp = painful shock, cannot let go, muscular paralysis, severe shock, breathing difficultys
0.1amps to 0.2 amps = death
0.2amps to 1.0amp = severe burning.




May i remind all to be careful around electricity please. may i also point out that his arms go rigid.

Rubycon, is that you?

(BTW I blanked out on her name and spent 10 minutes searching)

This is wrong since he was undoubtedly sweating. Most of the resistance of a human body is the first layer of skin, but with sweat there is a much lower resistance pathway into the blood. At that point, the resistivity is relatively low, e.g. < 10 ohm cm and it is safe to assume it is traveling through his blood as it is either DC or low frequency AC. The total series resistance of the human body at that point would be far, far less than 50,000 ohms. The currents in this video are definitely higher than a few amps.

Also, the body isn't an ohmic material. After the first bit of current started shocking him, his resistance changed and even more current was drawn. It's similar to how a lightbulb draws thousands of amps and quickly is reduced to something manageable after the resistance of the filament changes due to heat. I wouldn't be surprised if hundreds or thousands of amps were going through him before the fault protection stopped it. Burned or blistered skin has basically negligible resistance and it only takes a few microseconds for that to happen. The current was hitting him for at least a few hundred milliseconds, well beyond what would be necessary to blister his enter body. He was basically a short to ground after that point.

 

[SlowSpyder]

Originally posted by: zoiks
So I suppose the current passing through charcoal gary didn't have enough oomph to zap any of the people touching the train?

I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure electric always takes the path of least resistance. So, the voltage going through the train will just go down through the wheels into the track... probably how it's designed. I don't think it would go through someone touching the train and through them into the ground.

 

[MrDudeMan]

Originally posted by: SlowSpyder

Originally posted by: zoiks
So I suppose the current passing through charcoal gary didn't have enough oomph to zap any of the people touching the train?

I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure electric always takes the path of least resistance. So, the voltage going through the train will just go down through the wheels into the track... probably how it's designed. I don't think it would go through someone touching the train and through them into the ground.

It would go through someone touching the train if they were standing barefoot on dirt, but the majority of the current would still go through the axles/wheels into the track and then into the ground via the nails/spikes holding them down. Any type of shoe or material separating a train-touching-onlooker would present a huge series resistance to any current headed their way and drastically reduce the amount they would be exposed to unless they were standing in a puddle.

 

[thegimp03]

ZAP ZAP

 

[StinkyPinky]

Originally posted by: RaistlinZ
Wow, that was a lot of voltage! Double shot of it too. Even his hair was still burning after he plopped down. Why the hell did he reach to grab the wire in the first place?

I think it was more than his hair burning. I think his body fat was on fire

Nasty. Why did I watch that dammit.

 

[theeedude]

He's toast.

 

[JohnCU]

if someone hasn't said it already, this is not high voltage. it's medium.

 

[lyssword]

When I was a child I grabbed small electric water heater (220volts) and the electricity made my muscles rigid I couldnt get it off for like 5 seconds I had to pry it off with my other hand.