[Phys-l] Chimp unsuccessfully hangs from high voltage line

[jbellina <jbellina@saintmarys.edu>]

Some years ago, I had a crazyish uncle who had a small resort in the  
Catskills, and decided it would be fun to have a chimp to entertain  
the guests.  While as it happened, one day the chimp got away.  Now  
this "resort" was in the middle of cow pasture country, a very lovely  
setting with pastures separated by electric fences...a single wire  
with some high voltage on it.  There was enough internal resistance  
in the power supply so that animals got shocked by not killed.
So my uncle is chasing the chimp, and being a chimp when he sees the  
wire he jumps up and starts going along it hand over hand, until he  
comes to one of the support poles, and being a chimp, wraps his leg  
around it.  His body wrenched and he was stuck, alive, but very  
unhapppy.

cheers,

joe

Joseph J. Bellina, Jr. Ph.D.
Professor of Physics
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN 46556

On Aug 25, 2006, at 11:46 PM, David T. Marx wrote:

> >  Clearly school physics in the UK isn's doing much
> > > better than it is in the US.
> >
> >
> > Or maybe the young man DID learn something in Physics!
> > _______________________________________________
>
> That was my first thought.  The guy had to know to jump as far as  
> he could to grab onto the wire to
> ensure no possible harm.  It will be interesting to see a follow up  
> story when they find the guy.
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