During my summers in Sri Lanka, the sight of a large fruit bat electrocuted on the power line was not uncommon. Fruit bats in Sri Lanka, when compared to fruit bats in other parts of the world, are of an unusually large size. These bats often attempt to land on the power line in order to sleep but end up getting electrocuted because the tip of their wing touches another line. When their wing touches another power line, a voltage difference is established and the bat becomes the circuit for coulombs carrying 230 joules to travel through (the voltage in Sri Lanka is 230). However despite the hundreds of bats that die, there are still bats who manage to land on the power line without touching another and they sleep the night without danger. Only when a voltage difference is established is landing on a power line fatal.
3 comments:
this is an amazing entry. is that really an electrocuted bat? or is it just sleeping?
This is a super cool post! Did you understand how it became electrocuted when you saw it or did you realize the reason when you learned about it in physics?
thats so cool how you are able to travel to sri lanka! what a cool story about the bats and how it poses such a huge problem there!
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