Oh yeah everyone knows electricity
.It looks so easy, and it is easy, but then it kills you.
Anything conducts electricity if there is enough of it.
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
Why people gotta hate on a movie three decades old that remains perfect?
Gotta meme to keep it alive
Is his PhD in Electrical Engineering?
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.
With only 10’000 V? That’s a common Livestock Guardian*. Reaches at most 1 cm.
* though it probably has enough ampere to kill a cow
Now if he’d just tossed the stick at it longwise so that it touched several wires at the same time, it might get a result. I’m personally not sure how much a reaction you’d get out of dry wood with 10,000 volts. Stripping the bark off of green stick with definitely be better, or a wet stick. Although if electricity arced through the stick at least it probably wouldn’t kill him because of the amount of resistance that stick has.
You ever saw a electric fence at a high security installation? I just texted a guard at nearby prison and he said theirs are 5000 volts. He said when its humid they tingle when you get a few feet away. He also says they will kill you dead. He goes on to say its why they have another fence as a barrier to prevent people who don’t respect them from killing themselves. I know the ones at a nuke were marked lethal and would kill birds from time to time. They were just marked high voltage but the plant guys told us they were very high voltage at a higher frequency.
Considering these fences are enough to take down dinosaurs, it may set the end of the stick on fire from the resistance, so still works?
I never thought about that. Lol.
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.
I’d like to report that the more specialized a medical doctor is, the less common sense they have.
Had a doctor chew me out because he couldn’t be bothered to simply turn the computer on.
That was the issue. Pushing a button was beneath him. Cool man, I’m the only one here at this hour and the phones have to be manned constantly. That ticket can go to another department and wait until they come in morning.
Also, low priority and I noted that the doctor refused to simply turn it on.
I think that ticket sat there for over a month.
My university basically gave up with a couple of professors. They hired a personal assistant, full time, just to try and keep them organised. They apparently settled on 3 phone calls, to make sure they made lectures on time. It even extended to things like reminding them to actually get their wives birthday presents, and personal book keeping.
It seems the human brain has a capacity limit. The more specialist knowledge shoved in, the less room for more normal knowledge. Eventually it displaces even the most basic common sense.
Meet the German word Fachidiot: (derogatory) A person who is only interested in their own trade or research area and has few or no other interests or skills.
My professor (computer science - NP complete problems specific) had a theory.
Higher up your education, more and more you learn about less and less.
I am convinced he accidentally stumbled across Buddhism all on his own (he was a religious Christian, the generous, do not judge others kind). Because Buddha seems to have done his PhD in nothing. Even “wrote” the whole dissertation on nothingness.
At least he’s smart enough to know you Don’t whizz on the electric fence
Mythbusters did it.
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.
I always thought that was a piece of fence.
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)
With your stick?
i’m not touching your stick man, gross!
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
A high voltage electric fence. At some point even standing in front of the thing is enough.
With enough voltage, everything is a conductor.
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
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.
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.
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.
For more fun form a chain with other people and be the furthest from the person touching the fence.
At 10,000V and at sea level, you need to be at about 4mm from that fence for the air to arce.
A few posts above I was curious and actually went and checked it.
Also, a high voltage electric fence with indicator lights that he already knew were off.
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.
If I’m not mistaking the buzz is because it’s AC hence the buzz frequency is the same as the AC’s.
Certainly it makes sense that the high voltage would be generated from mains power using a big fat transformer since that’s probably the simplest way to do it.
Yep.
The highest DC voltage I have been near is around 1000V, it didn’t buzz, but 1000V AC also doesn’t buzz…
That buzzing sound is terrifying, by the way, if you’re close enough to a very high voltage.
An interesting way to hear this without endangering yourself is to be near transmission lines in a light rain. Some go over a local park near me, and it’s wild how well you can hear it sometimes.
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.
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).
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’t kill you, but I know from experience that they can knock you out for a bit if you get shocked through your head.
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.
Just because you’re very good at one thing doesn’t mean you’re good at another. Sometimes the further you go down one path, the less you know about everything else.
He must be a real good paleontologist to forget that wood is a bad conductor.
He was so good that John Hammond sought him out to invite him to the park to check it out before it opened.
Hammond didn’t pick him, the insurance company did. The company insisted on only him, likely because he was a notorious skeptic who would be able to look past the sensationalism of the dinosaurs to let them know a realistic risk assessment. The dinner scene where he and Ellie criticize Hammond is exactly why they wanted him there.
Point being, no indication is actually given that he was smarter or more published than the others in his field, because that isn’t really what the insurance was after.
I could be wrong but I remember Hammond choosing Grant, not the insurance company
Scroll down to “The Encased Mosquito.” Hammond wasn’t even in the scene.
No it’s the insurance company. It’s that scene the very beginning where the lawyer is going to visit the the guy digging for Amber. He’s the lawyer for the insurance company, he mentions that he’s going to get Grant. Then the other archaeologist says he won’t get Grant cuz Grant’s a digger. Which now I think about it I guess means that Hammond is interfering with the impartiality of the evaluators by bribing them.
As a PhD who has tried doing home improvement projects, it’s the most believable thing in the film.
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.
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.
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.
When it comes to an engineer doing a dangerous job in a domain other than his or her own, I would say that all the engineer knows is how bad things can be fucked up when one is trying to do expert stuff outside one’s own domain, because they’ve been in a position were they were the experts and some non-expert was saying things and trying stuff for their expert domain.
After seeing others do it in one’s own expert domain one generally realizes that “maybe, just maybe, that’s exactly how I look outside my domain of expertise to the experts of that domain when I open my big fat mouth”.
Ah, a C programmer.
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 😂.
