Michael Faraday was an English chemist and physicist - a bona fide electromagnetism and electrochemistry genius. Without him, men couldn't walk on live electrical wires. Wait, what?
In the Smithsonian IMAX documentary Straight Up: Helicopters in Action, helicopter pilots perform various dangerous and turbulent, though necessary, tasks. Like transporting a lineman onto a live high-voltage wire for power line maintenance.
"Faraday had a theory that if you enclosed a man in a metal cage and energized that cage at whatever voltage, the man would still live. The voltage would flow around him," says the lineman in the video below.
Wearing a "hot suit" (or Faraday Cage) made of Nomex and stainless steel thread (the metal acting as the cage), the lineman can walk on live power lines and have a half million volts pass over his body, without getting electrocuted.
Not only does this daredevil lineman walk on live power lines, but he also perches outside the helicopter during flight - his "magic carpet" ride.
Wonder how to build your own Faraday Cage? Wired has instructions on how to construct a Faraday Cage Wallet to protect your RFID information from data snoops.
