He is already standing too close and that stick would arc with that many volts flowing through it. The most likely outcome in reality if it had been energized. The arc would have jumped from the stick to him and no more New Zealand guy.
He must have skipped all of the Electrical Engineering classes in his Paleontology program.
I never thought about that. Lol.
At least he’s smart enough to know you Don’t whizz on the electric fence
As someone who has worked with academics, the more specialised the person, the less common sense they seem to hold onto.
As such, if this was outside their PhD specialisation, then it’d absolutely make sense that this wouldn’t occur to them.
At 10kV, a random stick would be all it takes to start an arc. He knows what he’s doing.
True, True… Hay who thought it was safe to run 10,000V Wire through a flammable overgrown jungle?
The people who wouldn’t cry about a dino BBQ scenario.
I invite you to touch an electric fence with a stick then.
You’re describing my pre-internet childhood.
(It wasn’t a 10k volt t-rex fence though)
I’ve installed a few, and you do have to test them somehow.
Best way is a long piece of grass, hold it about 30cm down and touch the other end to the fence. Most you get is a little tingle
With your stick?
Yeah that’s people with PhDs in my experience
Yeah, in this case it’s so high voltage that the resistance of the dry stick wont mean as much.
I don’t remember the scene, but personally I’d test an electric fence with a nonconductor. You’ll probably get some sparks but won’t die. You do you, ppl in this thread.
Yep. Very domain specific knowledge but couldn’t pour piss outta a boot with the instructions on the heel.
The first film paints a different picture.
The whole point of his story in that film was his growth and development, started saying “kids smell” and ended holding two of them safe.
He was the one throughout who kept his head, stayed competent in the face of fear and dealing with chaos.
Characters in Jurassic Park are portrayed as flawed, imperfect people who make mistakes. None of the plot relies on them being idiots or anything, but people screw up, panic on occasion, and don’t know things from time to time.
Dr. Grant using a stick to test the fence is a mistake, albeit a small one without real consequences. While it doesn’t distract from his character arc of how he feels about kids, it is his character simply messing up.
I also disagree with the person you replied to. While their assessment is correct, Dr. Grant is a character with a lot of time working in the field and therefore has a lot of practical skills. He does way, way better than a doctorate in mathematics working in academia would. Writing off all people with a doctorate (or experts in general) as being hyper specialized is a mistake.
As a PhD who has tried doing home improvement projects, it’s the most believable thing in the film.
Some pleeb shouted at me, “I thought you were an engineer!” And I shouted back, “A software engineer!” while I hammer a nail with my shoe.
Ah, a C programmer.
I’m a regular engineer and yeah I pull such shit. Listen, there’s a reason I tell everyone not to do what I do.
The difference between a regular idiot doing a dangerous job and an engineer doing a dangerous job is the engineer knows which parts of the job he’s risking imminent death on. There may often be no other difference.
Actually some of the most naïve people I’ve ever met were theretofore academically successful.
My fiancee has a couple degrees while I just graduated high school. She’s incredibly smart but I’m definitely more street savvy. She grew up a bit sheltered.
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Really?
Genuinely asking, I’m just an engineer… with very very bad grades. Passed was enough for me.
Once a professor asked me if I wanted to take the exam again because it was clear that I knew more than what I showed on the exam (a lot of 2 + 2 = 5 mistakes, I was fairly good at that and owe most of my low grades to that). I asked him if I passed, he said yes. Fuck that shit, I’m taking that grade and parading it across town, wooohoo 🥳.
As they say, a PhD is about learning more and more about less and less. Some of the smartest people at conferences I’ve attended legitimately risk death crossing the street.
Lol 😂, reminds me of some of the professors at uni 😂.
Wet wood from the ground is probably a better conductor than dinosaur scales
Did dinosaurs have scales?
They couldn’t even read music at all 😞
They sold a lot of coke though
They did in Jurassic Park
I dont think so, bananas are a relatively new thing iirc.
Mmmmmh, nom nom nom nom.
That’s exactly the right amount of dopamine hit I’m scrolling for. Now I can turn off my phone and roll over to sleep. Thanks bud 👌
Obviously: how would they weight themselves otherwise?
Why would they? Dinosaurs were notoriously body positive
Literal lol
A high voltage electric fence. At some point even standing in front of the thing is enough.
Air only has so much resistance itself. High enough voltage and the closest path to ground is where the charge will go.
Just like with Lightning
Humidity in the air makes that wayyy more dangerous because your skin will be highly conductive and the lower the resistance, the higher the current (which is what really hurts).
I’ve been a human grounding strap a couple times and don’t recommend it. I think the vibrating pain of AC (someone reenergized the outlet on me) is worse than the punch of high voltage (failing spark plug wire I grabbed with metal pliers while diagnosing a misfire).
My arm once got pulled into an electric fence when I was a kid and I couldn’t stop getting shocked until someone physically pulled me away. It was more of a self-control issue than accidentally bridging the gap.
That was the day I learned that some pain can be pleasant. The owner of the property didn’t seem as pleased with my discovery as I did. He had to shut off the fence and yanked my arm away and then told me to go explore my perversions somewhere else. I was too young to understand the word “perversion,” and I’m now eternally grateful to that poor unprepared rancher.
This paints a funny picture and caused a chuckle
You find it enjoyable? I regularly touch electric fences, but not because I want to but because I’m too stupid to think of another way to figure out if the thing is working. I find it to be the opposite of pleasant.
Oh. Here’s your fix:
A longish piece of green grass. Hold it by one end, then slide it on the fence wire like the grass was a violin bow, getting your fingers closer and closer to the fence. At some point you notice a pinging, or your fingers are touching the fence.
You can use this to gauge, very roughly, how powerful the charge is at that point.
I never said it was pleasant. But sometimes some types of pain are the right kind of pain.
Example of the opposite: when I’m swapping a switch in my old-ass house, sometimes I’m too lazy to turn off the breaker. When I inevitably shock myself, I say “dammit” because I’m trying to concentrate, not discover my preteen proclivities.
Edit: well slap me silly and call me a liar, I literally said the words “some pain can be pleasant.” I blame this error on undeserved confidence and complacency.
For more fun form a chain with other people and be the furthest from the person touching the fence.
At approx 3kV/mm, you would have to be pretty close to a 10kV fence.
Humidity plays a big role as does the frequency that the fence is running on. But you would be pretty safe standing a meter away, on that dry sunny day in the picture.
Also above a point, the high voltage causes the conductors to buzz.
Dry? It was a carribean island, right? Probably humid as fuck.
Yes, but it isn’t hosing down with rain…
It was the night before.
That buzzing sound is terrifying, by the way, if you’re close enough to a very high voltage.
In some way it is comforting, you know the power is where it is supposed to be… Walking around a 11kV switchyard that buzz is good.
10/3 millimeters away, to be precise.
With enough voltage, everything is a conductor.
I have a 10KV electric fence. 5KV to 15KV is typical electric fence voltage in a farm or bear prevention fence. Can’t feel a thing unless you actually touch it.
They are also not lethal. Very low current, just very high voltage. So it only hurts like fuck, but won’t kill a human, cow, or any other mammal that touches it.
They can kill an animal (including a mammal) if they become entangled and give up out of suffering, though.
This is pretty rare, but can happen.
It’s virtually zero risk to a human, though, who can cognize things like getting their hand disentangled from a string (even in a panic situation), or to most mammals, which tend to jerk backwards on contact.
They can’t kill you, but I know from experience that they can knock you out for a bit if you get shocked through your head.
This is why you should never try to remove a tree from a power line yourself.
Electricity always takes the path of least resistance back to the source. A tree, and possibly your body, may end up being the “path of least resistance”.
You won’t know if YOU are the path of least resistance or it the line is even energized until it’s too late.
Yup, this is why I shoot fallen tree limbs with a shotgun.
Off of power lines, right?
Yup, nothin’ like a little buckshot in the mornin’.
Yeah for when the little plants and leaves and dandelion wisps fall near my deck I got some anti vermin shot rounds for the .38
Also, a high voltage electric fence with indicator lights that he already knew were off.
I always thought that was a piece of fence.
Clearly his PhD is not in electrical engineering or biology
It’s actually a PhD in trombone. Someone misheard it one time, and nobody has ever thought to follow up.
“Oh, Alan? Yeah, he has a doctorate in bones or something.”
His job is beach
