by entrancedbymyGCC » Fri Jan 29, 2010 4:50 pm
Michael, if the cage has a route to bleed off the charge eventually, that's correct. And unless it's a really unusual circumstance, it will bleed off into the air even if it is not grounded. If it's very dry and super-well insulated I could imagine it retaining enough charge to transfer to an electrically neutral parrot.
As for being a Faraday cage, that's also true, but that's more about insulating the interior of the cage from external electro-magnetic fields. It probably does a pretty good job of keeping the radiation from a cell phone or cordless phone from effecting the space inside the cage. It will also protect a parrot on a non-conductive perch from any discharge to the cage, but if the parrot touches the cage, the charge can then transfer. It creates an electromagnetically neutral space in the space inside the cage, but once a conducting connection is made to the cage structure itself from inside, it's no longer isolated.
Scooter
Death Valley Scotty