4 ms·

Interesting. While in high school, a friend and I sailed his boat to the Lake Erie islands for the weekend. On our return trip a storm came up on us very quic

Interesting. While in high school, a friend and I sailed his boat to the Lake Erie islands for the weekend. On our return trip a storm came up on us very quickly, we headed for the closest harbor but got caught in the thick of it anyways. I saw a lightning bolt hit the water 6 feet in front of me and split in two to hit two massive boulders in the river bed, the whole river illuminated for a second during the strike, coolest and scariest moment of my life.

sockaddr 4y ago
Scary. At 6ft I wonder what kind of radiation dose you got.
- jasonjayr 4y ago
  I didn't think lightning produced any radiation, so I looked it up: https://hps.org/publicinformation/ate/q10893.html https://hps.org/publicinformation/ate/q10893.html Looks like the answer is: "not enough to be worry some, and even less if it's not a direct hit"
  - sockaddr 4y ago
    Thanks for pulling that up, it was an interesting read. However they form their conclusion based on: > assuming that the lightning bolt produces as much radiation as an industrial x-ray machine Where was that pulled from? Then: > a person who is close to the bolt would receive about a tenth of a fatal dose That is actually quite a problem if we just take their assumptions for granted Then they even say: > As far as I know, however, there are no direct radiation dose measurements from this dark lightning so we don't really know exactly what the dose is So basically that expert's opinion amounts to "lets make an assumption based on literally nothing, based on that it's only 1/10th of what's needed to kill you but even then we have no data so this is all made up"
    - jasonjayr 4y ago
      Fair, and yea, always evaluate sources critically but one (presumed) expert's assumption beats a pair of non-expert's speculation. I did learn about "dark lightning" from that article which does produce gamma rays, which I found fascinating.

sockaddr 4y ago

Scary. At 6ft I wonder what kind of radiation dose you got.

jasonjayr 4y ago
I didn't think lightning produced any radiation, so I looked it up: https://hps.org/publicinformation/ate/q10893.html https://hps.org/publicinformation/ate/q10893.html Looks like the answer is: "not enough to be worry some, and even less if it's not a direct hit"
- sockaddr 4y ago
  Thanks for pulling that up, it was an interesting read. However they form their conclusion based on: > assuming that the lightning bolt produces as much radiation as an industrial x-ray machine Where was that pulled from? Then: > a person who is close to the bolt would receive about a tenth of a fatal dose That is actually quite a problem if we just take their assumptions for granted Then they even say: > As far as I know, however, there are no direct radiation dose measurements from this dark lightning so we don't really know exactly what the dose is So basically that expert's opinion amounts to "lets make an assumption based on literally nothing, based on that it's only 1/10th of what's needed to kill you but even then we have no data so this is all made up"
  - jasonjayr 4y ago
    Fair, and yea, always evaluate sources critically but one (presumed) expert's assumption beats a pair of non-expert's speculation. I did learn about "dark lightning" from that article which does produce gamma rays, which I found fascinating.