Clever guy

As a PhD who has tried doing home improvement projects, it’s the most believable thing in the film.

A high voltage electric fence. At some point even standing in front of the thing is enough.

At 10kV, a random stick would be all it takes to start an arc. He knows what he's doing.

Just because you're very good at one thing doesn't mean you're good at another. Sometimes the further you go down one path, the less you know about everything else.

IIRC, he was messing with the kids and knew it was off because the lights were off. He proceeded to put his hands on it and convulse wildly as a joke.

Clearly his PhD is not in electrical engineering or biology

As someone who has worked with academics, the more specialised the person, the less common sense they seem to hold onto.

As such, if this was outside their PhD specialisation, then it'd absolutely make sense that this wouldn't occur to them.

Permanently Deleted

Yeah that’s people with PhDs in my experience

Wet wood from the ground is probably a better conductor than dinosaur scales

I invite you to touch an electric fence with a stick then.

I don't remember the scene, but personally I'd test an electric fence with a nonconductor. You'll probably get some sparks but won't die. You do you, ppl in this thread.

Well, I have an EE Degree specialized in Digital Systems - pretty much the opposite side of Electronic Engineering from the High Power side - and I would be almost as clueless as that guy when it comes to testing a 10,000V fence for power.

On the other hand I do know a lot of interesting things about CPU design ;)

Is his PhD in Electrical Engineering?

He is already standing too close and that stick would arc with that many volts flowing through it. The most likely outcome in reality if it had been energized. The arc would have jumped from the stick to him and no more New Zealand guy.

Hey it's a "It's a UNIX system" movie, isn't it?

Yep. Very domain specific knowledge but couldn’t pour piss outta a boot with the instructions on the heel.

Why people gotta hate on a movie three decades old that remains perfect?

He probably wanted to prevent significant arcing by using a higher impedance test apparatus due to the high voltage.

Even throwing a metal pipe against it won't do anything. Electric fences have one electrode in the ground, and that's how your body makes the circuit. If they had run and jumped onto the fence, then jumped off on the other side they would have been fine with the fences still active.

Source: I've set up an electric fence and been shocked multiple times, once through my head.

Oh yeah everyone knows electricity .

At least he's smart enough to know you Don't whizz on the electric fence

I always thought that was a piece of fence.

not a phd in physics huh

Idiot didnt know the MAD was 2'2", SMDH.

As a non-technical person, can someone explain to me why this is bad? I thought wood isn't a good conductor?

Considering these fences are enough to take down dinosaurs, it may set the end of the stick on fire from the resistance, so still works?

I never thought about that. Lol.

A PhD wouldn't know anything about science, so its pretty accurate really :/

Edit: It's the internet so naturally im being downvoted for learning but after looking it up, I was wrong. The PhD does stand for philosophy doctorate, but no longer refers specifically to the feild of philosophy as it once did. Apologies to anyone offended.