the.com/powerline
the silent river of electricity humming overhead, daring birds to find out why grounding matters
means A cable, usually strung between poles or towers, that carries electrical power from where it's generated to where it's used.
from A plain English compound of 'power' and 'line.' 'Power' came through Old French 'poeir' from Latin 'posse,' to be able; 'line' traces to Latin 'linea,' a flax thread, and earlier 'linum,' flax — the same fibrous root that gives us 'linen,' since the first lines were literally spun. The word arrived with electrification, naming the new threads we strung across the landscape to carry our newfound ability to make things go.
- voltage
- transmission lines can carry over 765,000 volts
- bird trick
- birds survive by never touching two wires
- audible buzz
- the hum is air molecules ionizing midair
- speed
- electricity travels near the speed of light
- loss
- about 5 percent vanishes as heat in transit
pacific dc intertie — ±500 kv high-voltage dc line connecting oregon and southern california, 1,360 km
hvdc light project sweden — ±80 kv dc transmission line between västervik and visby, operational since 1999