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A few weeks back, I was standing at a Hornsey rail station (in the UK) which uses overhead lines, and particularly has a number of parallel rail lines, all close to the platform.

While I was standing there, I went to hold hands with my girlfriend, and experienced a peculiar sensation in my fingertips, almost as if there were very large ridges on her hands. I've felt this before, touching a metal bodied laptop computer that was seemingly not earthed - dragging my finger across the surface my finger felt as if it was jumping along the surface, despite it being a smooth aluminium surface.

Is this a result of the overhead lines inducing a reciprocating current through my arm and/or fingertips? Is there some other feature of the railway that could cause this effect? And were we in any danger of any sort?

penguat
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1 Answers1

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The electric field of an infinite conducting wire varies as 1/r not 1/r^2 as for a point source. A high voltage line AC line at low elevation acting upon two people at least one of whom is well-grounded could be physiologically detectable though polarization and inductance. If it is DC, much less so for obvious reasons.

How much requires simple measurement rather than complex calculation. Bring along a good VOM digital multi-tester.

Uncle Al
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