Why dont birds get electrocuted when sitting on bare power lines?

[Q]

Originally posted by: MrPickins
It's been posted here before, but this is awesome:

"Like a Bird on a Wire"

Slightly better quality:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcalasGr_uk&FMT=18

That's a great clip, never seen that before.

 

[LtPage1]

Originally posted by: MrPickins
It's been posted here before, but this is awesome:

"Like a Bird on a Wire"

Slightly better quality:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcalasGr_uk&FMT=18

Man, that's beautiful. That guy's at the Morgan Freeman level of soothing voice.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2NT4-8tF0g

As you can see, it can stand on one electrified surface just fine, but when it touches two at the same time, there are shocking results

 

[MovingTarget]

The bird stays nice and un-crispy by not providing a path to ground. This is the same reason the linemen stay safe when working on said lines. Touch no more than 1 wire, keep proper distance to anything that can provide a quick path to ground.

 

[DrPizza]

A lot of people have replied with something about a path to ground - this isn't the only way to get electrocuted. You only need to provide a path to something at a different potential. Go to your breaker box and stick the finger of one hand on one 120V rail, and the other hand on the other 120V rail, and you'll become quite dead, despite not providing a "path to ground."

And, for what it's worth, there is a potential difference from one foot to the other foot on a bird, because wire does have a resistance. Thus, the bird forms a parallel circuit to the short length of wire he's standing on. However, the birds resistance is quite a few orders of magnitude higher than the resistance of the wire; thus little (nanoamps?) if any current would ever flow. Of course, a rough back of the napkin calculation ignored the electric field surrounding the wire.

 

[manlymatt83]

Originally posted by: JEDI
if a human touched bare high voltage power lines, they'll be dead + very crispy. but birds are unaffected.

Why?

Not grounded

 

[zinfamous]

Originally posted by: minendo
Not grounded.

 

[Throckmorton]

Originally posted by: 91TTZ
I can't believe that nearly everyone who replied so far lacks even a basic understanding of electricity.

Minendo, AMCRambler, good job.

Touching the line will raise the charge in you to the line's potential, but it cannot flow anywhere else because you're not grounded. If you were to hang on the line or work on it with a helicopter you'd be ok. If you dropped a conductive cable to the ground you'd get fried.

What about me?

 

[silverpig]

It's because of rock salt.

 

[Special K]

Originally posted by: Throckmorton

Originally posted by: 91TTZ
I can't believe that nearly everyone who replied so far lacks even a basic understanding of electricity.

Minendo, AMCRambler, good job.

Touching the line will raise the charge in you to the line's potential, but it cannot flow anywhere else because you're not grounded. If you were to hang on the line or work on it with a helicopter you'd be ok. If you dropped a conductive cable to the ground you'd get fried.

What about me?

Anyone who answered with "because there's no path to ground" or some variant was correct.

 

[jjones]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
A lot of people have replied with something about a path to ground - this isn't the only way to get electrocuted. You only need to provide a path to something at a different potential. Go to your breaker box and stick the finger of one hand on one 120V rail, and the other hand on the other 120V rail, and you'll become quite dead, despite not providing a "path to ground."

Hmm, I think this is one of those, "Don't try this at home" threads.

 

[wwswimming]

in San Diego a friend of mine would always let her male parakeet rest on her hand while she watched TV. he would rub his private parts against her. one day she decided to elaborate, and explained to me that Mr. Male Parakeet was actually masturbating.

Forever edified by this tidbit of information, i can't help but wonder if those birds sitting on the power line are doing more than sitting on the power line.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Special K

Originally posted by: Throckmorton

Originally posted by: 91TTZ
I can't believe that nearly everyone who replied so far lacks even a basic understanding of electricity.

Minendo, AMCRambler, good job.

Touching the line will raise the charge in you to the line's potential, but it cannot flow anywhere else because you're not grounded. If you were to hang on the line or work on it with a helicopter you'd be ok. If you dropped a conductive cable to the ground you'd get fried.

What about me?

Anyone who answered with "because there's no path to ground" or some variant was correct.

I'm pretty sure Throckmorton was also correct, at least based on what I learned in high school physics. If a human hung on the power line with two hands, it would create a parallel circuit. The resistance is much lower through the wire, so very little electricity goes through the person's body. Cut the wire between the person's hands and all of the electricity goes through the body.

Edit: I guess DrPizza already covered that.

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

Originally posted by: minendo
Not grounded.

This and different potentials.

Incredible as it seems, live high voltage transmission lines can be worked barehanded. The lineman must be isolated from the ground by using an insulated bucket truck or other method. The lineman wears special conductive clothing which is connected to the live power line, at which point the line and the lineman are at the same potential, allowing the lineman to handle the wire safely. Such work is often done from helicopters and is considered a highly specialized area of line work; few linemen have the special training to perform it. Barehanded live-wire work can theoretically be done at any voltage, but because better protective means are available for lower voltages, it is only used for transmission-level voltages and sometimes for the higher distribution voltages. Live wire work is extremely common on low voltage distribution systems within the UK as all linesmen are trained to work 'live'. Live wire work on high voltage distribution systems within the UK is carried out by specialist teams. These teams are sometimes referred to as 'Hot Glove' teams.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lineman_(occupation)

 

[arch113]

I lived on Guam also, a lot of fired snakes over there.

Originally posted by: marvdmartian
Yeah, snakes commonly cause outages, as they stretch across from one line to the next one. Saw it all the time when I lived in Guam, with those damn brown tree snakes (who obviously couldn't tell the difference between a tree and a damn power pole!).

 

[geno]

Originally posted by: wwswimming
in San Diego a friend of mine would always let her male parakeet rest on her hand while she watched TV. he would rub his private parts against her. one day she decided to elaborate, and explained to me that Mr. Male Parakeet was actually masturbating.

Forever edified by this tidbit of information, i can't help but wonder if those birds sitting on the power line are doing more than sitting on the power line.

Free hair gel.

 

[Rubycon]

A condor is going to feel more than a finch upon landing on a wire. Of course if a condor tries to land on a distro circuit, his wingspan unfortunately will probably be sufficient to bridge two phases creating an express avian toaster.

 

[Special K]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
A lot of people have replied with something about a path to ground - this isn't the only way to get electrocuted. You only need to provide a path to something at a different potential. Go to your breaker box and stick the finger of one hand on one 120V rail, and the other hand on the other 120V rail, and you'll become quite dead, despite not providing a "path to ground."

Just to clarify, you would be electrocuted in this case because the two 120V rails in a house are 180 degrees out of phase with respect to each other. Therefore, if you were to simultaneously grab both rails, it would be the equivalent of 240V.

Maybe that was obvious from his post, but I had to pause and think about it for a second. I forgot about the phase difference between the two 120V lines in a common household wiring configuration.

 

[jonks]

Tango? Cash? Anyone?

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

Originally posted by: minendo
Not grounded.

God, why did it take 4 posts? And why did others talk like they know what they are talking about?

Correct. They are not grounded. Also, the lines on most telephone lines are insulated lines (I wouldn't test them though).

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: JEDI
Topic Title: Why dont birds get electrocuted when sitting on bare power lines?

This is sad. This is what happens when Bible class replaces science class

 

[interchange]

Originally posted by: wwswimming
in San Diego a friend of mine would always let her male parakeet rest on her hand while she watched TV. he would rub his private parts against her. one day she decided to elaborate, and explained to me that Mr. Male Parakeet was actually masturbating.

Forever edified by this tidbit of information, i can't help but wonder if those birds sitting on the power line are doing more than sitting on the power line.

Masturbation would be something you do by yourself. That would be sex.

 

[BurnItDwn]

All these engineer types and smart people are full of baloney. It's obviously because birds are magic! When the flying spaghetti monster created birds, he gave them magic electricity proof feathers!

 

[Raizinman]

Its because birds are aliens. Real Simple.

 

[tidehigh]

as everybody else already stated, its because they are not on the ground