A man claims that a powerful radio antenna next to his land caused sparks to jump across the wires in a fence gate, and onto his sheep, killing it.
I am given frequency and the length of each piece of wire on the gate.
Why is this a highly unlikely situation, for the sheep to be killed?
2007-05-21 18:01:55 · 7 answers · asked by spiffy_mcbang13 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
The voltage induced per metre of the fece is very small. First of all, it is highly unlikely to get a spark which exceeds a fraction of millimeter.
Second, all the wires in fece are connected to grounded pillars and get grounded.
Thirdly, even if the fence is properly insulated etc.. and if it gets voltage in order of thousands of volts, (let us believe for the time being) then the fence will first flashover to ground and not the sheep as the nearest point is ground.
Fourthly, even if the sheep stands very close to it, and it does spark, the wool on sheep is insulating it. Even if it sparks, then the discharge current will be only grounding of static charge - like and will be unpleasent, but not lethal.
2007-05-21 19:51:01 · answer #1 · answered by dipakrashmi 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I couldn't find anything to back this argument up, but my "Theory" would be that the fence could build a charge, and that it might even be high enough voltage to cause a spark, but it would be like a static shock. Not enough to hurt the sheep - Unless it had a weak heart and was kind of jumpy to start with.
I would be interested in the real answer though when you get it...
2007-05-21 18:15:50 · answer #2 · answered by Nator 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't remember the exact number, but it's around 20 kV that's required to cause an arc across an inch of dry air.
If the radio transmitter was generating a field that strong, it would probably arc directly across the sheeps skin and cook it (similar to a microwave) without ever needing to arc thru the air.
Doug
2007-05-21 19:05:04 · answer #3 · answered by doug_donaghue 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The fence will provide a ground and complete the circuit - no further current will be present to cause the sheep's demise.
2007-05-21 18:06:47 · answer #4 · answered by LeAnne 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
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2016-12-11 16:46:34 · answer #5 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The fence behaves like a Faraday cage :-)
2007-05-21 18:14:47 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Also, for sparks to just such gaps, the gap essentially needs to be a vacuum.
2007-05-21 18:10:16 · answer #7 · answered by proff327 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋