High Voltage Cable Inspection
Why Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange recommends it
Electronics Stack Exchange answerers point people to it as a vivid example that a body can sit at very high voltage safely so long as no current path to ground exists.
Recommended by 0 people across 0 different months, 2013 to 2022.
What it is
A short 2007 clip showing a lineman in a conductive suit working on live 500 kV transmission lines, apparently carried on the line itself. The uploader, a former line worker, adds notes on the suits, pay and how to get into the job.
What people said
Cites Dave Tweed · 2013-01 · Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange · on “Kill with voltage”
You can put a lot of volts on the human body with no ill effects. For example, see this famous YouTube video: " High Voltage Cable Inspection [this video] ". It's current flow that injures the human body. And while you do get a jolt of current by discharging from a high voltage, the limited capacitance of the body limits the total energy available, and therefore the magnitude/duration of the current. And it's hard to keep a human charged up anyway; it tends to leak off to the environment because of humidity, corona discharge, etc.
Cites bigjosh · 2015-04 · Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange · on “Static shocks all over the building”
Can static shocks occur from grounded and ungrounded metals? Yes. A large ungrounded object still has capacitance. If there is a higher density of electrons on you than on the object, the electrons on you will feel repulsion from the other electrons on you and want to jump to the object where they will have more room to spread out. (Same goes in reverse if there are more electrons on the object.) Eventually if people keep transferring electrons to the large object, then the electrons will build up on the object until they push back as much as the electrons on you, and there will be no spark. The bigger the object, the more electrons it takes to "fill" it up to having the same density of elec
Cites Grace · 2022-01 · Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange · on “Can you touch a live wire without being shocked?”
I echo the above. Yes, you can. But, you shouldn’t unless you know what you’re doing and have taken the proper precautions. Here’s an extreme example: High voltage cable inspection… [this video]