Is it possible to get electrocuted by touching this electric line?

[Simfish]

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_gxYAfFM1cj0/TAMacp0MNYI/AAAAAAAAAWc/mxXpDc4_OBA/s640/05292010005.jpg

Is there a small chance of electrocution if these lines have insufficient insulation?

I know that the chances of electrocution are much higher if you happen to touch the ground and a power line up above at the same time. But that doesn't really automatically happen. With this power line, it's easy to accidentally touch it, so I'm scared.

 

[Mu naught]

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_gxYAfFM1cj0/TAMacp0MNYI/AAAAAAAAAWc/mxXpDc4_OBA/s640/05292010005.jpg

Is there a small chance of electrocution if these lines have insufficient insulation?

I know that the chances of electrocution are much higher if you happen to touch the ground and a power line up above at the same time. But that doesn't really automatically happen. With this power line, it's easy to accidentally touch it, so I'm scared.

LOL! That's not a power line... do you really think they would just let a high voltage wire hang around like that? It's a cable to anchor the pole in place... it doesn't carry any electricity...

 

[proculation]

That's a support wire. There's not current in that.

 

[Superstring]

Is this a joke?

 

[vociferous]

LOL! That's not a power line... do you really think they would just let a high voltage wire hang around like that? It's a cable to anchor the pole in place... it doesn't carry any electricity...

Not only that, but I typically see them split with ceramic blocks (they call it a strain insulator in the diagram), so no electricity should be able to be conducted past the ceramic even if the guy line were somehow to come into contact with a live wire.

 

[JDługosz]

LOL! That's not a power line... do you really think they would just let a high voltage wire hang around like that?

When I was 5, my mother assumed it was and I was not allowed to touch them. Later I figured out that it's no more dangerous then the pole or the ground itself, before even grasping the true purpose. (Mom called it a "ground line".)

 

[PhanthomJay]

Mothers seem to know everything. Although extremely unlikely, especially on local streets, guy wires nevertheless could, under certain circumstances, carry small currents (if grounding is poor, for example, and their is an induced voltage in the guy from the powerline, you can become the path to ground if you touch the guy wire). Such currents are typically small, but children are less tolerant to small currents than adults. As a matter of safe practice, stay away from powerlines and their supporting structures. With electricity, you never know...don't fool with it.

 

[vociferous]

Mothers seem to know everything. Although extremely unlikely, especially on local streets, guy wires nevertheless could, under certain circumstances, carry small currents (if grounding is poor, for example, and their is an induced voltage in the guy from the powerline, you can become the path to ground if you touch the guy wire). Such currents are typically small, but children are less tolerant to small currents than adults. As a matter of safe practice, stay away from powerlines and their supporting structures. With electricity, you never know...don't fool with it.

My uncle had that problem with the grounding on his trailer that he parked by his house. Sometimes you used to be able to feel current flowing through your body if you touched it.

 

[JDługosz]

Mothers seem to know everything. Although extremely unlikely, especially on local streets, guy wires nevertheless could, under certain circumstances, carry small currents (if grounding is poor, for example, and their is an induced voltage in the guy from the powerline, you can become the path to ground if you touch the guy wire). Such currents are typically small, but children are less tolerant to small currents than adults. As a matter of safe practice, stay away from powerlines and their supporting structures. With electricity, you never know...don't fool with it.

So that is a particularly poor place to make kids wait for a school bus.