Amps carried through air

[Simon G]

Hi everyone,
Watched a programme recently on TV, a young man was on top of a train (not advised) and the power lines above him carried 10,000 volts. He got too close and it jumped through the air and got him. Thankfully he lived and made a decent recovery.
My question being, is it even possible to take an educated guess at how many amps went through him? Say he was 2-3” away from the wire, with air being a poor conductor, I would of thought 1A would of still been enough to take his life no problem.
From what I’ve read about online this is no easy question, say weather circumstances where not raining.
Looking forward to responses!

 

[Strima]

Anyones guess. Without knowing how conductive he was, how good the path to earth, humidity, his water content, what shoes he was wearing, this list goes on.

 

[Silly Sausage]

Good question!
I would've thought that the actual arc would have very little resistance due to it being plasma, so the current would be limited by the person/train combo to Earth.

 

[freddo]

An arc being plasma is very low resistance, bypass the series resistance on an arc light and the supply fuse will blow.

 

[Rpa07]

His flip flops had probably fallen off giving him a clean contact of sweaty foot to aluminium carriage roof - IDIOT!

 

[jackhammerJIM]

In dry conditions the human body alone can have a resistance of 100 000 ohms . However , during a sustained shock this resistance will drop rapidly .

Ignoring the air
10 000/100000 = 0.1 amperes

 

[Squid]

My ex BIL worked/works at a energy production plant in Gdansk and years ago a maintenance guy entered a generator for maintenance, to be honest I can't remember the full story but the power surge cooked his body from the inside and he died in pain a few days later.

 

[Rpa07]

Well thats that bowl of Weetabix ruined, Cheers SWD!

My ex BIL worked/works at a energy production plant in Gdansk and years ago a maintenance guy entered a generator for maintenance, to be honest I can't remember the full story but the power surge cooked his body from the inside and he died in pain a few days later.

 

[Simon G]

In dry conditions the human body alone can have a resistance of 100 000 ohms . However , during a sustained shock this resistance will drop rapidly .

Ignoring the air
10 000/100000 = 0.1 amperes

And I suppose with it jumping through the air it could well have not been sustained for long at all, so with the air space included it could likely be less than 0.1amps? That makes sense how he may have miraculously survived it

 

[SparkyChick]

The human body is actually quite a good conductor once you get below the skin, we are made up largely of water and a chemical soup that includes salts of various forms.

Under the right conditions you could be looking at 500 ohms. So for 10kV that would be 20A, and 20A is more than capable of heating things up rather quickly.

So factoring in the plasma, he was probably the current limiter.

 

[static zap]

Going to have burns like putting your hand/foot
quickly in a pan of boiling water .
Burnt bones and bad nerve damage ?
Photos of contact burns may be interesting !
(if not eating burnt toast) ,
Twigletts have been getting evermore
carbon coated of late !
--Wondering if ejected steam keeps plasma a little less close , Expansion of water->-steam is amazing .

 

[dmxtothemax]

The most likely reason he survived was because of the path that the current took, in this case I sur mise that the bulk of the current traveled thru his extremity (skin), this makes sense when you think about it, cause it is where the most water is. very little if any traveled thru vital area's such as the heart or brain, couple this with the fact that it was only brief means he should buy a casket ticket, cause good luck was his this day.

 

[johnduffell]

Wondering if ejected steam keeps plasma a little less close , Expansion of water->-steam is amazing .

Yes it is Leidenfrost effect - Wikipedia - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leidenfrost_effect

 

[oracle]

Once fitted wireless switches and the lady of the house asked me to fit wireless sockets.
That would really be amps carried through the air, and she wanted a detailed explanation why she couldn't have them.
I said that the electrical mifragulator would become condified making the whole room driviled. She just said "Oh" and left it .

 

[Squid]

Once fitted wireless switches and the lady of the house asked me to fit wireless sockets.
That would really be amps carried through the air, and she wanted a detailed explanation why she couldn't have them.
I said that the electrical mifragulator would become condified making the whole room driviled. She just said "Oh" and left it .

You should have billed her for the shoe box of "free amps" that you left behind.