Cyclist hospitalised after riding across live rail
- Thread starter Fordulike
- Start date
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Deleted member 4366
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Oh well, look on the bright side. Maybe he'll get super powers now.
He would have to have been bitten by a radioactive spider and accidently given some experimental drugs at the same time too
If you can imagine actually riding across without putting your food down..
Southern's third rail system is 500 volts DC, bike tyres don't seem to have had enough insulation resistance in this case.
However he may have been riding at an angle across and had a wheel slip allowing a rim to contact.
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Deleted member 4366
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It's nothing to do with the tyres. His frame shorted the two rails, while the wheels were on the ground between the rails. There would have been a massive flash, which would have made him drop the bike, so then the whole frame fell flat on the rails and shorted them out. There would have been a big plasma ball, which is what would have burn't the guy.
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Deleted member 4366
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9000 amps - enough to make a nice plasma ball. A 200 amp 48v one is pretty spectacular. I've made a few.
Show off! I've only ever managed 100 A 37 V - I'm off to have a sulk...
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Deleted member 4366
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My tee-shirt looked like one of those bulls-eye ones afterwards. I wasn't burnt, but it didn't do my eyes any good. It's surprising how bright the flash is.Show off! I've only ever managed 100 A 37 V - I'm off to have a sulk...
The live rail ... probably 1million amps it is a very thick cross section and would take a while to heat up to plastic point.
The train is probably drawing 100kw when accelerating. That's a guess . So typically the current will be 100kA÷500 =200amp. If it's more power them the current will be pro rata.
This might explain why it happened.
http://www.kentonline.co.uk/maidstone/news/disruption-after-motorbike-fire-131172/
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Deleted member 4366
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A train draws about 9000 amps at 500v. That's 4500Kw, not 100Kw. You're miles off. A small hatchback car can make 100Kw! At 4500Kw, a train would be equivalent to 45 cars, which sounds about right to me.
Was struck by lightning in the Swiss Alps at 12000ft.
Reckon I survived because my clothing was soaking wet, no goretex in them days!
All our ironmongery was vibrating and sparks coming off the ends of the ice axes.
The breakdown voltage of air is about 10000V per cm.
It's not voltage that kills you it's current
100 ma is enough to put your heart into ventricular fibrillation.
That's why the UK stuck with 240V and the the US with 110V.
We don't use the electric chair to kill people.
Check out the war between Edison and Tesla.
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Reckon I survived because my clothing was soaking wet, no goretex in them days!
All our ironmongery was vibrating and sparks coming off the ends of the ice axes.
The breakdown voltage of air is about 10000V per cm.
It's not voltage that kills you it's current
100 ma is enough to put your heart into ventricular fibrillation.
That's why the UK stuck with 240V and the the US with 110V.
We don't use the electric chair to kill people.
Check out the war between Edison and Tesla.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
I had a funny event a year ago. I was grass cutting with an 1.6kw electric mower, which had a dodgy extension lead. At some stage, the wire broke within the insulation and went open circuit. It must have happened at peak current in the phase. The back EMF was such as to blow apart the internal wire insulation , the external cladding and produce a plasma flash. This instantly scorched, shriveled the skin on my little finger, which was close to the cable. The damage was extensive .. removing skin and fat covering down to the muscle layer! ...In an instant.
It has recovered since, but there is still some surface sensitivity. I was lucky in that it was not another four inches further along the cable or it might have taken out my wrist tendons and major veins
So d8veh, you can count yourself lucky. That it was only your teeshirt. , And I now wear gloves while handling live cables near electric motors.