All of us humans know that we shouldn’t touch
power lines. Why aren’t these creatures obeying
the rules? More importantly, why aren’t they
getting electrocuted?
Well, it’s not because their feet are particularly
good insulators: they don’t have rubber claws or
anything like that. It all has to do with the way
that electricity moves.
A lot of us learned about circuits in basic science
classes: loops that electricity moves through.
Think of a battery: it has a positive end and a
negative end. Basically, electricity will flow out
through the negative end, into your lightbulb or
foot massager or toy or whatever, and then back
again into the positive end. Circuits can get super
complex, but that’s the gist of it: wires, a load
(your lightbulb), and a power source.
Let’s get some vocabulary out of the way. Current
is the number of electrons moving, and it’s
measured in amps. Voltage (measured in volts, of
course) is what could be called the pressure that
pushes the electrons along. Current always flows
“downhill”: on our battery above, there are
positive charges on the positive side, so all the
electrons on the negative side flow that way to
balance it out.
There isn’t any difference in the number of
electrons along two points of the same wire. A
bird sitting on a wire is kind of like the express
lanes on the highway that are blocked off from
the normal traffic: you have an entry point and an
exit point, and some of the “cars” will go in and
come back out again. It’s a parallel path. But in
this case, instead of the express lanes moving
nice and quick, it’s way tougher for our electron
cars to move through that way: maybe there’s
construction, or a stalled vehicle, that everyone
knows about, so they all stick to the normal lanes.
A bird has the same charge as the power lines,
and when it sits on it, it has more resistance than
the lines themselves, so the electrons just
continue on their merry way.
There are ways for birds and squirrels to get
electrocuted, though, and this is where the
principle of grounding comes into play. Basically,
the ground is a nice giant conductor that
electrons move into easily, and it’s always going
to be downhill: the ground will never have as
much charge as one wire, because it’ll dissipate
into the ground. This is why you should never
touch wires: for the most part, you’re still going
to be attached to the ground, and electrical poles
have a grounding wire on them. In effect, you will
be completing the circuit. The current will flow
through the wire, into the ground, up through
you, and back into the wire. And then you’ll die,
so NEVER DO THIS.
Birds manage to get electrocuted if they have a
part of their body touching another wire: this
causes current to flow through the bird into the
other wire and, voila, bird death. This exact thing
is a problem with large raptors (hawks and
vultures and eagles): since they’re so big, it’s
more likely for them to accidentally touch another
wire. The same thing happens to squirrels if they
touch the transformer on the pole at the same
time as they’re touching the wire.
Interestingly, what this does mean is that, were
you falling from the sky, and the only thing that
you had to grab on to was a single power line far
above the ground (sort of depending on the type
of line), if you grabbed with both hands and hung
on it, you wouldn’t get electrocuted. You would
be a bird on a power line. As long as all you’re
touching is that single power line (and not the
ground, or any trees, or any other power lines),
you’ll probably be okay. I still don’t know how
you’d get down, though. LOL!!


PLEASE DO NOT PRATICALIZE IT AT HOME,SCHOOL OR ANYWHERE!! If you try it!! Na you sabi!!

Its possible that the good Lord being all knowing knew that we'll invent transformers & high voltage cables & made the necessary. precautions when he was creating birds,Praise the Lord!!!

nedu2000: Its possible that the good Lord being all knowing knew that we'll invent transformers & high voltage cables & made the necessary. precautions when he was creating birds,Praise the Lord!!!

Exactly!! Halaluyaaaa

An educative post like this is not yet on frontpage!!!?? Hmm

Dis is really educative.kudos to d op

ninja4life: Dis is really educative.kudos to d op

Tanks!!

When a bird stands on a single powerline without its body touching any other thing except that same single line, the bird is then said to be standing on an EQUIPOTENTIAL surface and will never get electrocuted. Remember, the powerline has a given voltage called potential. But if its body can mistakenly touch another line or any other thing, the bird is no longer resting on an equipotential surface and will immediately receive electric shock. Same thing applicable to man or any other thing standing on an equipotential surface.

God created d phenomenon called 'equipotentiality'

And that's how this nice thread just died down!! It didn't make FP!!

Homesteady my Gee!!!! Na so we see am oo!!! Go beg Mukina make e shift go FP!!!

Seyi Godspower: When a bird stands on a single powerline without its body touching any other thing except that same single line, the bird is then said to be standing on an EQUIPOTENTIAL surface and will never get electrocuted. Remember, the powerline has a given voltage called potential. But if its body can mistakenly touch another line or any other thing, the bird is no longer resting on an equipotential surface and will immediately receive electric shock. Same thing applicable to man or any other thing standing on an equipotential surface.

Ur corect, it must be electricuted wen its oda part touches another line. Cos d current wil flow tru it

So this very educative thread is still on backpage?

but why is that some bats are electricuted

My good guyz, this write-up will not make any headline as it is not new discovery. Though it is educative but not a comprehensive answer to why birds are not electrocuted when they stand on power lines. Your reason of equipotential is absolutely correct but is not complete. Your effort not to accept d popularly known answer is what fault ur write-up and make u not to realize that ur discovery is not new. The popularly known reason for d survival of birds on power lines remains d same i.e. D insulation on birds legs. Plz dont make what is simple to look complex. If u dont agree with me then answer this questions: why is it that bats are not protected by equipotential? if so human beings are not safe as well. Why is it paramount that a transmission line must be disconnected and grounded during maintenance when d engineers know of equipotential? My guyz, if u dont know, I want u to know that by default all transmission lines are connected to d ground thru air (with high capacitance in between) which gives a leakage current which is accounted for in power system engineering with d use of capacitor to model it. Hence, this is why current can flow thru anything that is in contact with power lines without insulator. The birds with insulator are exempted.