4 ms·
The best way to survive, of course, is to avoid a lightning strike. Oh, and remember that rubber tires and rubber-soled shoes provide virtually no protection f
by Exquisites 7y ago
The best way to survive, of course, is to avoid a lightning strike.
Oh, and remember that rubber tires and rubber-soled shoes provide virtually no protection from lightning. In fact, many victims of lightning strikes are farmers in open fields riding tractors with rubber tires.
- tyingq 7y agoAnd often metal farming implements dragging the ground, and a vehicle that sometimes makes your head the highest thing from the ground. Maybe not the best high level evidence that tires on a car don't help.
- mhb 7y agoBetter evidence is that the lightning has already traveled through hundreds of feet of air which is a much better insulator than one foot of rubber.
- jascii 7y agoLightning travels through a channel of ionized air which isn't a very good insulator at all.
- yummypaint 7y agoIts odd the the old misconception of lightning as a simple electrostatic discharge still reigns. Electrical breakdown in air happens around 3 MV/meter. The potentials generated in clouds are very large but not remotely close to what would be required to reach the ground. Moreover, slow motion footage that can be found anywhere clearly shows branching tendrils descending very slowly, followed by the rapid return stroke after the line of plasma reaches the ground. I have heard that part of the mechanism that ionizes air and propagates the tendrils involves production of high intensity x-rays. I wonder if this could have health effects in itself.
- mhb 7y agoSure, but the air isn't ionized before the lightning ionizes it. In any case, it's moot since the lightning could bypass the rubber by going through the air next to it.
- qes 7y agoThe high level evidence is that lighting can travel thousands of feet through air. An inch or two of rubber is nothing. It's the metal cage of the car that provides lighting a more conductive path around instead of through you.
- tyingq 7y agoFine, but sitting on a metal seat/floorboards propped up as the highest point on a grounded big metal object is basically a human lightning rod. Comparing that to a car isn't compelling. That's different than laying in a ditch or sitting in a car. At least in the car, the body is higher off the ground, and a lower resistance path than you. Perhaps a convertible, open top, bare metal floor with a flat tire might be comparable.
- Doxin 7y agoRubber tires and soles don't protect from a strike, no, but they do offer at least some protection from the step potential[0] a nearby strike would cause. Of course with everything being wet from the rain and all the protection is most likely rather limited. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_potential_rise https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_potential_rise