News: Man Walks On Half a Million Volts of Electricity

Man Walks On Half a Million Volts of Electricity

Michael Faraday was an English chemist and physicist - a bona fide electromagnetism and electrochemistry genius. Without him, men couldn't walk on live electrical wires. Wait, what?

In the Smithsonian IMAX documentary Straight Up: Helicopters in Action, helicopter pilots perform various dangerous and turbulent, though necessary, tasks. Like transporting a lineman onto a live high-voltage wire for power line maintenance.

"Faraday had a theory that if you enclosed a man in a metal cage and energized that cage at whatever voltage, the man would still live. The voltage would flow around him," says the lineman in the video below.

Wearing a "hot suit" (or Faraday Cage) made of Nomex and stainless steel thread (the metal acting as the cage), the lineman can walk on live power lines and have a half million volts pass  over his body, without getting electrocuted.

Not only does this daredevil lineman walk on live power lines, but he also perches outside the helicopter during flight - his "magic carpet" ride.

Wonder how to build your own Faraday Cage? Wired has instructions on how to construct a Faraday Cage Wallet to protect your RFID information from data snoops.

Just updated your iPhone to iOS 18? You'll find a ton of hot new features for some of your most-used Apple apps. Dive in and see for yourself:

3 Comments

oh its amazing

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