Does My Bike Induce Electricity?

An anonymous reader asks: "I have a steel frame road bicycle and recently began riding on a path that parallels high-tension power lines for several miles. My question is: Does my bike induce an electric current by passing through the electric fields from the power lines? I normally ride the section at about 18 miles per hour, estimate the distance to the lines at about 75-100 feet, and think they're 200KV lines."

Comments

Yes, but it's negligible

[muon1183]

Yes, you do in fact get an induced current. However, as demonstrated vividly by a question on my final when I was taking first semester E&M, you need somewhere on the order of 200,000 loops of wire to get enough induced current to be worthwhile from 20,000V power lines. (The exact question was, is it feasible to steal power by placing a coil between two 20,000V power transmission lines.) I'm pretty sure you don't care about the negligible effects (unless you're paranoid, or your bike is composed of 200,000 loops of wire).