If birds can stand on power lines, could a person potentially walk/stand on power lines?
548516
For a human to walk on a power line and live, you'd need to scale up the powercords to make the human represent the size of a pidgeon.\n\nThe reason being, if you're standing on a wire, your head may be closer to a wire.  For example...\n\n---------  +\n\n---'-----  -        <-bird\n\n\n---------  +        (+ is positive, - is negative)\n    o\n    |\n---------  -        <-human\n\nThe human body is about 80% water.  As as we all know, water conducts electricity.  As such, your body has a lower "resistance" then the air surrounding it.  So it may be safe to say (approximatly)\n\nHuman's resistance (between lines): 1.1 million ohms.\nBird's resistance (between lines): 20 million ohms.\n\nIf the voltage is sufficient to pass through the 1.1 million ohms, you'll be fried.  The amperage will instantly kill you.\n\n---------------------------------------\n\nIf you're talking about just walking on an electrified line (with no others around), then yes, you should be able to walk along it.  The current isn't different in the same line, so the electricity won't travel through your body.
83799
Yes if the sub station were the power comes from goes down, it won't make a difference where your lines are
24264
Electric current flows between two points, if the points have different potentials. When a bird touches a wire, the bird will have the same potential as the wire.\n\nIf the bird reaches two wires at the same time, there can be different potentials, so the bird can be 'electrocuted'. That's why the wires need to be far enough from each other.\n\nIf somebody reaches the wire and the ground at the same time, there can also be different potentials... That's why the wires need to be far enough from the ground.
576717
for a flow in electricity to occur, there has to be a change in voltage.  the bird is touching only one line a very short distance apart.  as there is no difference in voltage between the two points, there can be no traveling of current through the bird.  \n\nalso, the wire offers less resistance to travel than does the bird.  if the roles were reversed, the bird would carry the current.  \n\nand lastly, the wire is insulated.  it's not just bare metal.  this protects the birds and squirrels from the fatal charge.
679764
My pet Emu -Larry- says you are mistaken. In reality birds do not fly. See, you were outside, enjoying a lovely day when you stumbled upon a group of kids playing in the park. What you saw was nothing more than a fowl ball.
887471
they can!!!!!! just short distances.   ever try to catch one:) it will fly!!!!
180348
FLY! And effortlessly... I've gotten used to walking, being in thee city...but flying around instead of walking is something I've wanted to do since I was a cub, lol...so unbearlike, right? It'd be cool and for some reason less energy-burning if there are wings for gliding..
699136
Once birds get up in the air, they use two main flying techniques to stay up there.\n\nSoaring: When birds soar, they take advantage air currents to help hold them up. Three kinds of air currents are especially helpful to soaring birds. \n\nThermal air currents develop in places where the air is warmer in one spot than an adjoining area, such as a paved road alongside a snowy field. Even on a very cold day, the sun will heat the pavement at least a few degrees more than the snow. This slightly warmer air is slightly lighter than the colder air, and rises. This rising air current can lift very light objects, like feathers and hollow bones. The birds that most often take advantage of thermals (like the hawks that fly along coastlines) usually have very wide wings and tail. This makes the area of their wings very large compared to their body weight. \nUpdrafts, also called obstruction currents, develop when wind hits an obstruction, like a cliff or a building. The rushing air has to go somewhere, so it goes up, and can carry a bird up with it. Birds who fly on updrafts (like the many hawks that migrate along Hawk Mountain, Pennsylvania) also have very wide wings and tail. \nWind moving toward a bird with spread wings can hold the bird up, thanks to the airfoil shape of the wings. Birds that fly on moving air currents often have long, narrow wings, such as gulls and albatrosses. \n  \n \nFlapping: When birds flap, the stroke of their downbeat moves the wing tips forward and downward. The wingtips make a loop at the bottom of the downstroke, and as the wings move up, the wing tips move upward and backward. In the downstroke, the pressure is higher below the wing than above, causing lift. And as they move forward, the rush of air on their airfoil wings causes more lift. But because flapping birds have smaller wings than soaring birds, they must move forward faster to stay in the air. Most songbirds must fly at least 11 miles per hour to stay up. One scientist calculated that for an ostrich to stay aloft, it would have to take off and maintain a minimum speed of 100 miles per hour. Birds who use their wings to flap more than soar often have smaller wings than soaring birds.
700029
Ideally for the bird it must contain enough energy to justify the energy consumed in gathering it.  If not then the bird was better off staying put.
252167
Let us go back to ben franklin. When he was flying a kite in a thunderstorm, He attached a key to the string, and then tied a silk cord to the string. Touching the key he received a shock, proving the electrical charge from lightning traveled the string. Obviosly the wetness of the string had something to do with it, as dry string will not conduct. Power lines carry a variety of voltages, 7500 to 24,000 volts. Notice that birds can sit on the lines unhurt. They are not connected to ground (return path for electricity).  In a commercial area of 14, 000 to 24,000 volts, there may be enough EMF (electromotive force or voltage) to push the current down the string to you and then GROUND. Bottom line - dont take chances, donmt fly kites near power lines.
484256
Yes because sometimes lighting can get through the electric lines and damage your PC if the building does not have proper "earthing".  Safer still, after turning off the computer, remove the plug from the socket too. Replug only after the storm has gone
391527
They could. There were fish that evolved from swimming to walking. There is a fish called the flying fish that can jumpfrom the water and glide through the air for a ways to escape predators. Follow the link to see a picture, its fins look very similar to wings.\n\n\nhttp://oceanlink.island.net/oinfo/biodiversity/flyingfish/flyingfish.html
1059903
Tree Branches.....\n\nThey switched because power lines are uniform in size, easy to grip, and there are no leaves in the way so you can see if a predator is sneaking up on you, or spot a tasty snack easier.
1104792
When the bird perches on a live wire, her body becomes charged--for the moment, it's at the same voltage as the wire. But no current flows into her body. A body is a poor conductor compared to copper wire, so there's no reason for electrons to take a detour through the bird. More importantly, electrons current flow from a region of high voltage to one of low voltage. The drifting current, in effect, ignores the bird. \n\nBut if a bird (or a power line worker) accidentally touches an electrical "ground" while in contact with the high-voltage wire, she completes an electrical circuit. A ground is a region of approximately zero voltage. The earth, and anything touching it that can conduct current, is the ground. \n\nLike water flowing over a dam into a river, current surges through the bird (or person's) body on its way into the ground. Severe injury or death by electrocution is the result. \n\nThat's why a squirrel can run across an electrical line, but sadly die when its foot makes contact with the (grounded) transformer on the pole at wire's end. \n\nIt's also why drivers and passengers are warned to stay inside the car if it runs into a downed power line. Touching the ground with your foot would complete the circuit: Electrons would flow from the wire, into the car, and through you on their way into the earth. (Inside the car you are usually protected by the car's four rubber tires, which act as insulators between car and ground.) \n\nLikewise, birds can get in trouble with power lines if wing or wrist bones--or wet feathers--connect bare wires and grounds. \n\nRaptors (birds of prey) are especially likely to be killed by power lines, particularly in the western U.S. In wide-open plains and deserts, power poles are often the only high perches available for hunters like Bald and Golden eagles and Great Horned owls, who survey the landscape for prey and take off into rising wind currents. \n\nSuch large birds can easily contact two wires or a wire and a transformer with their great wingspread. And raptors can easily brush against a live wire while settling onto a (grounded) pole-top. Thousands are killed by power lines each year. \n\nHow to protect big birds? Power lines can be made less dangerous by widening the gap between conducting and ground wires, insulating wires and metal parts, and moving wires farther away from pole tops. And guards can be built around favorite raptor perches.
426165
Birds could fly with only 1 wing if if was "falling" in one direction, if not, then it can not fly. \nHuman Nature, people always want to be better than each other
894836
1.  don't have to walk\n2.  frequent flyer miles\n3.  if they couldn't fly they couldn't reach their nests
1015432
Yes power transmission lines can be harmful. I would definitely do not touch them.  Causing cancer?  Well a few more studies need to be made to prove or to disprove that.