Luke's First Life Lesson

Lesson #1: Ohm's Law, and why we don't play on utility poles.

Voltage = Current * Resistance
Current needed to hurt someone really bad = 0.1 Amps
High side of human resistance = 10,000 Ohms

Below is a picture of a utility pole in our backyard, with a 12kV line at the top. Look closely.
Here's the same picture zoomed in a little. This picture was the first test of our new Nikon 55-200mm zoom lens with vibration reduction. Unfortunately, this squirrel has a resistance of less than 1,000 Ohms... he used to be more of a light brown.
Current = (12kV)/(1,000 Ohms) = 12 Amps of current through the squirrel, over 100 times more current than it could survive. Sometimes it takes sad events like dead squirrels hanging from electrical lines to teach kids important life lessons.