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Old 12-21-22, 05:46 AM
  #133  
PeteHski
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Originally Posted by Road Fan
Several assumptions in all this.

One is to assume that if electrical conductivity exists between a human body and the surface of the earth, that is beneficial, because electric charge would become balanced between the earth and the human. If there is a potential difference between the human body and the earth, there is an electric field associated with it. We know that very low E fields are not perceptible, and I could not say if there are imperceptible effects which are beneficial. This is where the hypothetical part of this is. We also know that higher valaues of E field can have effects of shock, burning, major injury, and fatality. Very different effects but all the same basic physics. But it might be true that even the lower levels of E field have effects which are not beneficial, even if they feel good. We're getting pretty far from cycling, even the science of cycling, into stuff which is hard to measure much less to interpret.

One important reason to think about this is microelectronics. Tiny E fields can exist between to contacts of an electronic microcircuit (such as the computer which runs your car's engine) and the discharge of even these tiny E fields can destroy the microcircuit, which is an expensive business loss in a mass production environment. In such work areas workers must be grounded to the building grounding system to prevent their motions from causing the electric field intensity from building up.. The worker wears a little wrist band on a wire with a high electrical resistance, and it is connected to the ground and to the worker's wrist in this way. The currents in such cases are extremely small, but they are enough to destroy the microcomputer. These currents are flowing through the bodies of Electrical Engineers and Technicians, but no danger is believed to be present, monetary loss due to damaged integrated circuits is reduced nearly to zero, and any more subtle effects are, well, too subtle at least to pay attention to.

It was asked, can a bicycle be grounded? I think if you could drag a small chain along the ground you would be continuously grounded. And I think if the rim of a wheel is grounded to its axle, the tires might provide enough connection (enough conductivity or low-enough resistance through that tire or the set of both tires) to limit the intensity of the E fields which are present and which may be generated..

I'm not sure how understandable all this is here in bike world, but it reflects real electrical physics. As an electrical engineer with a deep background in electrical and magnetic science, the part I can't answer is, whether these technical electrical phenomena at such low levels have any good or bad physiological effects?

I just don't know the answer to that.
Very hard to prove, but not totally implausible. I think scientists are still trying to prove whether or not cats and other animals are able to navigate using the Earth's magnetic fields. Then there's the potential link between clinical depression and living close to high-voltage power lines. Then there's the argument about the health effects of mobile phone electromagnetic radiation etc and all the other artificial background RF we are continually exposed to. Most government bodies insist that it's all (probably) harmless, but then history shows that these official positions can change with increased experience of exposure and further study e.g. asbestos. It's still early days in our understanding of the effects of RF on our physiology and mental health.
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