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iPods and Lighting

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Nik

Sun Jul 16 2006, 09:03PM

Registered Member #53 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 04:31AM
Location: Ontario, Canada
Posts: 638

CTV ran a story last night that sais that if you are hit by lighting while using a cell phone or wearing an mp3 player you are more likely to be injured or killed. It makes sure to state that those devices do not attract lighting. I woudl say the iPod in the article probably saved the boys life by runnign most of the current around his organs insted of through them.

Steve Conner

Sun Jul 16 2006, 09:47PM

Registered Member #30 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706

Sounds like one of these dumb-ass stories designed to make money for journalists.

Even if it was true, the odds of the average man getting hit by lightning are so slim, that it'd still be worth wearing a MP3 player even if it made you 100 times more likely to get killed. If you worked in a job with a lot of lightning around, like mountain guide, golf course groundsman, or Bill Wysock's pool boy, it might be a different story.

By the same argument, I never buy lottery tickets, because the odds of winning the jackpot are so slim that you have almost as much chance of finding the winning ticket lying in the street as you have of buying it.

Marko

Sun Jul 16 2006, 10:07PM

Registered Member #89 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 02:40PM
Location: Zadar, Croatia
Posts: 3145

By the same argument, I never buy lottery tickets, because the odds of winning the jackpot are so slim that you have almost as much chance of finding the winning ticket lying in the street as you have of buying it.

Haha Steve =) This is a good one.

A little difference between lightning and lottery is that you could easily get hit by climbing on empire state building antenna and waving a breakout point during storm.
As Steve said it depends on your job, place, habits, and etc.
You can hardly do the same for lottery altough.

And surely nothing to do with mp3 players and cell phones, it's even more stupid than 'dangerous radiation' from cell phones, TV and such.

Simon

Mon Jul 17 2006, 12:18AM

Registered Member #32 Joined: Sat Feb 04 2006, 08:58AM
Location: Australia
Posts: 549

I can't comment on this MP3 player/phone/gadget fear specifically except that it shouldn't be taken too seriously.

It is well documented that having conductive objects close to the skin when hit by lightning can cause more serious burns.

Think of this way. You have relatively conductive meat inside you surrounded by poorly conducting skin. As most of you will know (especially if you've had a serious shock) the skin tends to be burnt more in electrical injuries due to I2R heating. This results in deep, painful burns wherever electric current enters or leaves the body.

Having conductive items close to the skin acts as a short circuit. To flow through this, though, the current has to pass through your skin twice. Thus lightning strike victims often have burn marks around any metal objects they carry.

Does that mean wearing a ring is dangerous? Remember, I didn't say that getting burnt was more dangerous than other shock injuries. Also, lightning is so unpredictable and rare, it's not worth worrying about.

HV Enthusiast

Mon Jul 17 2006, 01:02AM

Registered Member #15 Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 01:11PM
Location:
Posts: 3068

Steve Conner is correct. The odds of getting struck by an actual lightning bolt is actually about zero. Almost everyone that does get injured by lightning is injured due to proximity effects, and not the actual strike itself. In fact, the most common mode of death, in both humans and cattle, is huge voltage differentials developing between a human's legs or cattles legs, to the high peak currents traveling through the ground. This is why a whole herd of cattle will drop dead when they are all huddled underneath a tree.

Because of this, you actually stand a considerably greater chance of surviving a nearby lightning strike if you are standing directly front or rear facing the tree so that as the current radiates outwards from the tree, the voltage differential at each leg is about the same. Standing perpendicular to the tree is bad.

wrote ...

Also, lightning is so unpredictable and rare, it's not worth worrying about.

Lightning is definitely worth worrying about and its both not rare or unpredictable. You certaintly don't want to be out in the open or under a tree, or on the golf course or beach during a lightning storm. Your odds of getting injured by lightning during any second of any day may be extremely low, however, during an actual lightning storm, depending on where you are, the odds go up by orders of magnitude!

Simon

Mon Jul 17 2006, 02:36AM

Registered Member #32 Joined: Sat Feb 04 2006, 08:58AM
Location: Australia
Posts: 549

By unpredictable I meant in effect. Some of the repair anecdotes on the board attest to that.

By rare I meant in the general sense. Of course you put lightning rods on tall buildings but it's stupid to factor in lightning strikes when dressing in the morning.

Nik

Mon Jul 17 2006, 03:09AM

Registered Member #53 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 04:31AM
Location: Ontario, Canada
Posts: 638

The vidoe portion of this article can be found here

It is in Part 3 of the news on the 15th.

JimmyH

Wed Jul 19 2006, 07:20PM

Registered Member #358 Joined: Sat Apr 01 2006, 06:13AM
Location: UCSB
Posts: 28

In fact, the most common mode of death, in both humans and cattle, is huge voltage differentials developing between a human's legs or cattles legs, to the high peak currents traveling through the ground. This is why a whole herd of cattle will drop dead when they are all huddled underneath a tree.

There was something like that on TV (Max X?), except they were soccer players, not cattle, and they lived. It was pretty funny, some dust shoots up in the corner of the field (the bolt was between frames), and then all the players just fall to the ground. Has anyone else seen it?

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