3 ms·

The thin wire will melt appart before the power lines do.

• cesarb 5y ago
  > The thin wire will melt apart before the power lines do. It's a bit more subtle than that. As far as I understand, the thin wire might melt, but its vaporized remnants would be enough to keep an arc going between the phases or a phase and the ground. Then the protection devices at both ends of the line would detect the short circuit, turn off the line, wait for a bit of time (enough for the vaporized remnants and ionized air to disperse), and turn the line on again automatically. Since most high-voltage power grids have redundant circuits, it's likely that no consumer would lose power even for a moment.
• lazide 5y ago
  It doesn’t melt, it vaporizes, causing a live plasma channel to form and a giant arc between the lines that is self sustaining. If they have a arc interrupter, it might stop it before it destroys the lines, but not often, and at the power levels we’re talking about here, it is a very difficult problem. The technique the US Military uses to destroy enemy power grids is to detonate a ball of long stringy aluminum confetti/Mylar above the enemy power substations. The destruction is apparently substantial. Check out Mylar balloons and power lines (lots of compilations on YouTube if you don’t believe me.
  • sudosysgen 5y ago
    Arcing powerlines generally doesn't cause irreparable damage. Sometimes a swarm of birds will trigger a swarm. The protection circuit normally trips and it's fine. Over a substation I could see it causing a lot more damage though.