Dear Adrienne and Ann Marie,

Power lines are made from many different kinds of things. The most common stuff used to make power lines is aluminum and steel. The aluminum does a good job of carrying electricity from one place to another, but aluminum is not a very strong metal. Think about how easy it is to crinkle up a Coke can. Power lines have to do a good job carrying electricity so that we don't waste the electricity before we have a chance to use it in our homes, stores and factories. The steel makes the wires strong just like it makes bicycles, cars and trains strong. Power lines have to be strong so that they don't break easily when the wind blows hard or a small limb falls on them. Of course, big limbs and trees are heavier than even a strong power line, so the lines often break during strong storms like the recent hurricanes that came through our area. When the lines break, our power goes out until the power company can come and fix the broken lines.

In our world today, power lines are used to carry electricity to our homes from big buildings called power plants that may be many miles away from where we live. In the South, most electricity is produced in power plants by burning coal or natural gas to boil water to make steam. The steam is then used to turn power generators that produce the electricity. Electricity can also be created using water or wind to turn power generators. We can even convert light from the sun into electricity. However we produce it, power lines carry the electricity to all of the places that we use it.

Some power lines are very large, standing more than 60-70 feet tall, some are medium-size, and some are pretty small, being only a little taller than a two-story building. The largest power lines carry enough electric power for several cities the size of Auburn and Opelika combined. Large cities, like Atlanta, Birmingham, Mobile and Montgomery have many large power lines bringing in electrical power to the people that live there. Smaller power lines, like the ones you can see along many roads and streets, carry electric power to a few houses or neighborhoods. You should always remember, though, that all power lines are dangerous and you should never, ever, touch one or play near them.

There really isn't much difference between the power lines you see along the roads and across the fields and the wires that run to the electric outlets in your house, but the ones in your house have some type of rubber or plastic around the wires to keep things from touching the wires. The wires along the roads are up high in the air aren't normally touched by anything, so they don't usually have any rubber or plastic around them. Eventually, all power lines are connected together to many, many, power plants. In fact, your house is connected to each of your friends' houses through power lines. Living in Alabama or Georgia, you are even connected to people that live as far away as Texas, Oklahoma, Minnesota, New York, Maine, Virginia, Florida, and even parts of Canada. If you look at a map of the United States and see these states, you can see that power lines cover a very long distance and they are built so that we can use electricity to help us in everything we do.

The most important thing to always remember about power lines is that they are dangerous. You should never touch them or play around them and you should never touch the electric outlets or wires in your house. These power lines, electrical outlets and plugs, and wires may look safe, but they are not. Always ask a grown-up about any power line you see to make sure it is safe to be around.

Thanks for your question,
Aubie and Dr. Halpin