Electric fence test

Slideways

Hey guys, someone recently asked me about my little trick I used years ago where I used to grab the electric fence with only one foot on the ground and I’d just feel it pulse in my hand.
I’d then tell whoever was with me that it wasn’t working and get much merriment when they would get zapped.

Question I have is, does anyone know the physics behind only getting the pulse of it with one foot on the ground. I do believe I have a high tolerance for electricity as have been zapped a few times by welders/jump leads etc

patsy_mccabe

Do you get a shock if you have the 2 feet on the ground?

Slideways

Yeah. It would give me a decent clobber but not as bad as my mates judging by their reactions

benneca1

To answer your question less earthing with one foot. Hence less shock. Thick dry socks and good rubber boots and you will hardly feel it.

Nekarsulm

Has it something to do with a voltage difference between your 2 feet on the ground?
You see warnings about fallen wires, and you are recommended to "bunny hop" away from them if getting off a tractor or out a car in their vicinity.
They stress that you must keep your feet right together...
This, I think, is also why cow's etc are so easily electrocuted.

patsy_mccabe

The poor devils have wet noses too.:D
I dragged a pigtail under a battery fence one day and caught the wire. Ended up touching the pigtail off my sweaty head, the ground and the wire all at the same time. Got the mother of all shocks. Took me a good half hour to recover.

oldsmokey

We're in the middle of rejuvenating our system..for years adding bits of extra wire, in the end the energiser wasnt up to delivering a decent belt. New energiser, 4 new eart bars later, I touched it yesterday by accident, won't be doing that again! My young lads don't seem to get half the shock i feel if they touch the wire, strange.
If calves dont get trained to a good shock early, they'll make life miserable later, run through anything..

keepalive213

Ive heard of people who can comfortably take electric shocks that would cause much more discomfort to your average person.
I've a neighbour like that, big boned, stocky fella...thick as yer ass...

Say my name

keepalive213 wrote: »

Ive heard of people who can comfortably take electric shocks that would cause much more discomfort to your average person.
I've a neighbour like that, big boned, stocky fella...thick as yer ass...

I'm not sure that's a good thing in a person.
My grandfather could comfortably stop a cars engine running by just (I'm not sure how this works or it's something else in a car) grabbing the spark plugs/points one in each hand.

He died from leukaemia in his 50's.
Whether the two things were linked or not? Or whether those shocks were the cause of it years later or whether it was the ability to do it in the first place that was an indicator that something was not quite right in his body and bones anyway and it just got worse later on.
Ionizing radiation is a cause of leukaemia.
So it'd make you wonder.

_Brian

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

The poor devils have wet noses too.:D
I dragged a pigtail under a battery fence one day and caught the wire. Ended up touching the pigtail off my sweaty head, the ground and the wire all at the same time. Got the mother of all shocks. Took me a good half hour to recover.

Yea.
Last summer I was leaning into an old bath drinker clearing it out. The mains fencer goes over the drinker to protect the ballcock.
Talking to someone behind me and passing no heed on what I was doing I had both hands in the bath of water and let the top of my head touch the mains fencer.

No exaggeration it was like being hit by a block on the top of the head, I was instantly sitting on my arse back about five feet looking about not knowing what happened.