Don't whizz on the electric fence!
You'd think that this would never need to be said, and yet...

Hope was a farm girl I knew many years back. Her family has had the farm for many generations, and at the time her grandparents were still living there with her parents and siblings.

One day Grandpa was coming back from town and noticed that one of the electric fences was down, so he parked his truck, got out the tool box, shut off the fence and hiked out to the pasture to repair it. Task completed, he decided to empty his bladder and aimed for the fencepost. (Why do so many guys do that?)

Her dad came home shortly after Grandpa, and noticed that the fence was switched off, so he sensibly switched it back on.

Hope said you could hear Grandpa's scream and cursing from the house.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Mon 28 May 2012, 17:31, 29 replies)

Urban legend is an urban legend.
/ac
( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Mon 28 May 2012, 18:19, closed)

^ this ^

( Fucking hell Jeff I am not a robot, Mon 28 May 2012, 19:06, closed)

It may be an urban legend....
but it does happen. I saw a mate of mine do it. And it certainly causes a lot of swearing. Good job the fence buzzes its charge in short bursts.

Bloody funny though. The rest of us sat there laughing our heads off. While Simon was bent over double swearing.

We didn't know the fence was electrified. And it was at night. And yeah - it is weird how us men need something to aim at. If Simon had just aimed at the clear ground it wouldn't have been half as funny.
( Batter Pudding Hurler is a figment of your imagination, Mon 28 May 2012, 20:52, closed)

Yup, it does happen.
Hope was not imaginative enough to have invented this, and this was in the very early 80s before the internet. She said she witnessed it (that is, heard the screaming and saw her grandfather beat her dad for it), so I tend to believe her.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Mon 28 May 2012, 20:57, closed)

Late 1980s
Late 1980s here. We were not actually watching Simon... but soon heard his reaction. And as you can imagine, when a group of teenagers have a choice between sympathy or laughter, there is only one real response.

The best part is the delay a fence has between jolts. So he was "settling in" to the flow when the fence suddenly bit him back.
( Batter Pudding Hurler is a figment of your imagination, Mon 28 May 2012, 21:28, closed)

I'm sure I've seen a mythbusters where they called this impossible.
I might not. I might have dreamed it. I often dream of Adam Savage. The sexy beast.
( Windy Pig I'm naturally quite suspicious about the moon., Mon 28 May 2012, 21:25, closed)

weird dream...
It is easy to test. Stand in a field. Hold electric fence. Notice the jolt you get. Obviously, for a better effect, take your shoes off.

Now, feeling brave yet? Believe in your dreams? There is an easy test to make. Assuming you have a full bladder. (I would not advise it)


Electric Fences are (were?) basically a car battery wired up to the fence. I can't remember how it worked (I guess capacitors of some form). But that charge would build up into a noticeable belt. Standard practice as teenagers to challenge each other to hold onto the wire for the longest time. (IIRC the trick was to hold a tighter grip. The more wimpy you held it, the worse it felt)

You have to have a fairly big charge as you are trying to get through tough horse or cow skin. So having boots on is not much help.
( Batter Pudding Hurler is a figment of your imagination, Mon 28 May 2012, 21:36, closed)

Depends how old they are
Old electric fence units had a mechanical timer like the balance wheel of a clock that closed a contact and connected up a coil. When the wheel swung round and broke the contact it produced a big spark which the coil stepped up to a couple of thousand volts at a tiny current.

Modern ones do the same thing but it's all electronic and works like a flashgun circuit. A little oscillator drives a transformer that charges a big capacitor, and when it's charged it is discharged through a big transformer like a car ignition coil.

Incidentally, most animals are smart enough to learn to stay away from the bright orange electric fence "string" which has stainless steel strands to carry the voltage. They're not smart enough to learn the difference between electric fence string and ordinary orange baler twine, though ;-)
(gordonjcp, Mon 28 May 2012, 22:02, closed)

tl:dr zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Nah, you're alright you are, I believe you, it's cool. This has all reminded me of a Ren and Stimpy episode with a boardgame based around urine and fences.
( Windy Pig I'm naturally quite suspicious about the moon., Tue 29 May 2012, 0:35, closed)

don't wizz on the electric fence
stimpy was playing it with ren's cousin sven
( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Tue 29 May 2012, 11:47, closed)

thats the one.
Good times.
( Windy Pig I'm naturally quite suspicious about the moon., Wed 30 May 2012, 9:34, closed)

You didn't imagine it
They showed it was possible, but only if you stood *really * close to the fence. And mmm, Adam Savage...
(Petite chien is going to do science to it, Mon 28 May 2012, 22:55, closed)

whuuu?
Beardy fucking ginge.
Jamie's the brooding hunk.
(Misery McUglywife an attention seeking sociopathic fuckstain., Mon 28 May 2012, 23:27, closed)

But i'm a beardy fucking ginge and you told me you loved me.
Or did I dream that too?
( Windy Pig I'm naturally quite suspicious about the moon., Tue 29 May 2012, 0:33, closed)

I saw this one, and their experiment was wrong. They didn't account for the "spin" a urethra puts on the flow. It keeps the stream together and will help you die around high voltages. I guess evolution didn't think of that.

The show can be entertaining but a lot of what they do is bullshit. The brown note does exist, but it is extremely unlikely you're going to find it outdoors. They simply don't know enough about the subject they are looking into, and may be too arrogant to go to experts.

The only thing they've proved conclusively is wearing a berret with a ginger goatee makes you look like a twat.
( jagwap, Tue 29 May 2012, 3:07, closed)

FUCK!
there goes my mythbusters degree!

pisses on fence for SCIENCE!

*DIES*
(fucknugget the third, Tue 29 May 2012, 4:06, closed)

Actually, they do go to experts
I know 'cos an expert told me.
They also do the stats correctly to determine whether a result is significant or not.
( P-MONKE We're all fucked, Tue 29 May 2012, 8:52, closed)

Objection!

( Windy Pig I'm naturally quite suspicious about the moon., Tue 29 May 2012, 11:44, closed)

they blew the fuck out of a cement truck, though
that was pretty cool
( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Tue 29 May 2012, 11:48, closed)

Citation needed...
"The brown note does exist"

Because I'm calling a good solid No It Does Not until I see some evidence that's not at the level of "a man in a pub told me", or even "a bloke who said he was a sound engineer told me"

There are noises that will shake your innards about and make you feel a bit ill. But they can't make you crap yourself without disabling two sets of sphincter muscles. So no.


Ref:
www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&ved=0CFMQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fkms1.isn.ethz.ch%2Fserviceengine%2FFiles%2FISN%2F16781%2Fipublicationdocument_singledocument%2Fab8bb4a3-4ad5-493a-b7d6-fb732fc1e943%2Fen%2FOP22.pdf&ei=bhHFT5HfJe6Y0QW8zLyeCg&usg=AFQjCNHU-jOYcWIKBYPvreMZ94bsPIFvoQ
( DukeEuphoria Comes highly reccomended, Tue 29 May 2012, 19:17, closed)

The problem with the Brown Note is that it depends on hitting the resonant frequency of the abdomen of the intended target. As people are not considerate enough to grow in exactly the same dimensions or have the same elastic properties to their flesh, it varies from person to person.

Not to mention that the amplitude needed to cause such vibrations in the abdomen are so huge that they would likely smash all of the larger windows in the vicinity in the process, and would require woofers the size of Luciano Pavarotti's dinner plate connected to an amplifier powerful enough to project cannon shells through plate steel.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Tue 29 May 2012, 19:43, closed)

It also depends on the idea of an abdomen having a resonant frequency in the first place.
With all the gooey stuff slubbing around in there the damping factor is almost certainly going to be well over unity and in that case, chickabiddies, there ain't no resonance.
(ubergeekian, Tue 29 May 2012, 20:07, closed)

There can be an overall resonant frequency.
The catch is that it will vary from person to person, and also from condition to condition- did you eat recently? did you take a major shit? is your bladder full?

So there isn't a magic frequency that will work all the time, or even one that will work most of the time.

Too bad, as that could have some really interesting applications.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Tue 29 May 2012, 22:52, closed)

IIRC the mythbusters experiment was regarding the '3rd rail' in the New York subway system
Dunno if their results would translate to the capacitor-charge/discharge system in a typical electric fence as the '3rd rail' is carrying 600 - 700 volts DC at fairly high amperages.
(Captain Placid 24/7 ball gags, brownie mix and clown porn, Tue 29 May 2012, 9:12, closed)

I remember it being testing out if you could make a taser using salt water streams instead of wires. They found that a short distance out the stream broke into discrete droplets that the charge couldn't jump.

The problem becomes one of turbulent flow versus laminar flow. A single tube stream has varying velocities- faster toward the center, slower toward the outside- which make it turbulent. But if you use a bundle of small tubes in parallel, the turbulence tends to get canceled out and you get a smooth stream of water which can in fact be continuous for a long distance. Here's a video which may help: youtu.be/OV-IazRk0sU

Mythbusters didn't take it quite far enough. Given two laminar flow nozzles in parallel, you could indeed make a taser with saline as the conductors.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Tue 29 May 2012, 9:54, closed)

It also seems more likely that
the stream could be starting closer to a high strand of an electric fence and not have time to break into the droplets that meant the third rail - which is at ground level - didn't shock them.
(richardm, Tue 29 May 2012, 17:32, closed)

I've winkled on many an electric fence and have never got shocked. However, I would not recommend lining up with your friends, holding hands, with each end person then grabbing the wire - that seriously hurts, but very funny, how we laughed!
(feedingtimeatthezoo day 1 of his bikini diet started, Tue 29 May 2012, 11:12, closed)

See, this is the part I don't get.
Even if it's unlikely to be switched on- hell, even if you yourself switched it off- why piss on the fencepost? Why not turn away from it and pick out a dandelion or something to aim for? Why take the chance at all of your pecker getting popped?
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Tue 29 May 2012, 23:21, closed)

You don't choose an electric fence,
more a case of accidental. It is not as if all fences are electrified, so it is easy to forget to check.

And I have a theory as to "why aim at the fencepost?" As kids you are taught to stand in the corner of the room and aim at the porcelain. So aiming at a fence post is therefore only logical. Unlike many animals, we are not very well designed to piss while moving.

Obviously this theory breaks down when there is snow to write your name into... maybe it is just about marking territory?
( Batter Pudding Hurler is a figment of your imagination, Wed 30 May 2012, 11:34, closed)