Shouldn't be a joke, but it's still funny

[Ozkaban]

From this morning's Sydney Morning Herald (http://www.smh.com.au/world/strangebuttrue/man-killed-by-urinating-on-downed-power-line-20100303-pgpe.html):


Salient points:

Man crashes car into power pole and ends up in ditch
Calls for relatives to come and help him out
Gets out of car and 'relieves' himself
Manages to get electrocuted in process.
Worst bit: unspecified burn marks indicate how he was electrocuted


Surely a candidate for a Darwin award? I mean, the guy knocked the power line down first...

Cheers,
Dave

[Daddles]

But Mythbusters 'proved' that this was impossible :oo:

Assuming you accept that what happens on Mythbusters has any relationship with genuinely investigating stuff (they're more interested in meeting their own, very very narrow, preconceived ideas).

Richard

[bluegum30]

my understanding that peeing on a live wire is a trip to the happy hunting ground's.

[Dengue]

Touching a live power line when another part of your body is in contact with the ground means goodbye forever. In this poor guys case, his urine formed a beautiful electrical path back to his body for the passage of electric current to the gound via his feet. The lower part of his body would have been cooked, and when he fell possibly another path was formed - terrible way to go!

[Daddles]

Mythbusters looked at this fairly carefully (yes, surprising I know) and were squirting onto the live rail of a railway line. They found that a normal urine flow wasn't continuous enough to carry the current and they only got success when using a relatively massive spout of water, far more than even a bull would put out, let alone a man.

Richard
with the usual caveats about quoting Mythbusters as a reliable source :cool:

[Phil Spencer]

But Mythbusters 'proved' that this was impossible :oo:

Assuming you accept that what happens on Mythbusters has any relationship with genuinely investigating stuff (they're more interested in meeting their own, very very narrow, preconceived ideas).

Richard

Having peed into an electric fence I can guarantee that the Mythbusters team is wrong. I saw stars and Willy would not work for several hours afterward :oo::oo:

[Gingermick]

But Mythbusters 'proved' that this was impossible :oo:
Richard

wasn't that an electric fence and the third rail on a railway line? He may have knocked over a 33KV line. Electric fence is 9V and the third rail is only a couple of hundred, they didn't test 33000, so it may be possible given the burn marks on the old fellas old fella

[Vernonv]

Electric fence is 9V ...Electric fences are in the kV range.

[AUSSIE]

Having peed into an electric fence I can guarantee that the Mythbusters team is wrong. I saw stars and Willy would not work for several hours afterward :oo::oo: Lucky you could still find little Willy:D

[AUSSIE]

Mythbusters looked at this fairly carefully (yes, surprising I know) and were squirting onto the live rail of a railway line. They found that a normal urine flow wasn't continuous enough to carry the current and they only got success when using a relatively massive spout of water, far more than even a bull would put out, let alone a man.

Richard
with the usual caveats about quoting Mythbusters as a reliable source :cool: MAYBE:D:rolleyes: Daddles could be coaxed into giving it a test run,to see what happens:oo: There wouldn't be too many other volunteers around.The only way to know if something is true or not is to do it yourself,and I don't want to know bad enough to try it.:no::roll:

[Gingermick]

Electric fences are in the kV range.

well I meant 12 volts,.... and the neighbours runs from car battery, but we live in Town :-

[opelblues]

i did it once. on a dairy farm at piggabeen about 20 years ago. i got two little tingles in a row ( thats went i said o S---T) and then wack. i came to in the spliter yard. and the boys in the shed laughing. it took week to come back out

[Vernonv]

well I meant 12 volts,.... and the neighbours runs from car battery, but we live in Town :-Yep they often run off 12 volts, but the actual voltage applied to the fence is normally around 6kV (varies depending on the energiser). I certainly wouldn't want to on one.

[Dengue]

:whs: is spot on!


Using Gingermick's analogy, a car operates at 12V, but you would't want to touch a spark plug while the motor is running

[Phil Spencer]

Lucky you could still find little Willy:D

I was calling it "Wee Willy" for a while. :D:D:D:D

[arose62]

When I worked for Prospect Electricity, one of the bits of safety info we were given during our orientation tour of a substation was:

if you are in a car with a live wire touching it, and you need to get out, Don't step out - Jump (and make sure both feet land together). Then, don't walk away - jump (like a kangaroo).

The reasoning is that the voltage spreads out from the source (wire) like a pool of water (or a dart board). If you step across an (imaginary) circular ripple, the electricity could flow up one leg, and down the other, doing damage along the way.
If you keep your feet together, it's like birds on a live wire - there's no voltage difference between them, so nothing happens.

Cheers,
Andrew

[Gingermick]

, but you would't want to touch a spark plug while the motor is running

nor wee on it