Carbon Fiber Poles in Thunderstorms

But Lear, being self-righteous, had no fear of the lightening bolts, was not challenging God but seeking His wrath on others. Crazy maybe, but not suicidal. On the other hand, the lightning was, in accordance with his perception, his ally and he momentarily acting as a forward observer for God’s own artillery battery, called for fire upon, “… all germens spill at once That make ingrateful man!”

“The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.”

—-Samuel Clemens (as Mark Twain)

Wow, another Double Easy out there? Woohoo! And Imaginary numbers and Phasors, makes we want to go back and enroll in a graduate Transient Circuts course ;)

MikeB

What you're describing is called a Faraday cage. For Alternating Current or fast transients like lightning, the energy tends to stay on the "outside" of the cage. (Unfortunately, the definition of the 'outside' is not always obvious or simple, and there is documentation for people dying who were on the inside of structures.)

The reason a Faraday cage works is that like charges repel, so if you're in your car and you are struck by a massive instaneous bolt of negative electrons (aka lightning), the charge rapidly distributes itself on the outside of the car because the negative charges repel each other.

A non-convertable car is usually a pretty good Faraday cage, assuming you're appendages remain on the 'inside', whatever that is.

If you were going to be struck by lightning, you would be better off being in a Faraday cage (assuming it was stout enough to conduct the current well enough to not plate the molten plasma onto your undershorts)

Next class, we'll be modeling lightning strikes to tents as fast transients using the SEPTRE analysis program. We'll need a volunteer to fly a balloon off their CF tent pole to see if the program accurately predicts survivability.

MikeB

Working on it at least…
This semester should be lots of fun: Linear Systems, Electromagnetics, and Electronics I. Not to mention Linear Algebra. Its like having four math classes in one semester! All the excitement you can handle!
And don't be fooled, the name "phasor" makes it sound a lot more exciting than it really is.

Adam

Note- Make sure sarcasm meter batteries are fully charged before reading above post.

Sign me up!!

Ben Franklin

"Next class, we'll be modeling lightning strikes to tents as fast transients using the SEPTRE analysis program. We'll need a volunteer to fly a balloon off their CF tent pole to see if the program accurately predicts survivability.

MikeB"

This is too wierd. And it really is for real. I'm not drinking haven't had any prescription drugs in the last year, this is just wierd. I know I posted several times in this thread about lightning and Faraday cages in the past few days.

We're vacating at a beach house at Crystal Beach, TX, along comes a spectacular lightning storm in the Gulf of Mexico, we're watching it from the back porch, after a while, my oldest son and I come inside.

A few minutes later, at the same time we see a flash outside (which those still on the back porch claim hit one of the 20' high flagpoles on the porch) we hear and see this ZZZZAAAPPP! and flash ***inside*** the house, jumping from a tall vertical wooden support to a metal fixture to the faucet.
I immediately think the antenna or wiring must have been struck, but on closer inspection, there is no wiring in that immediate area. I'm guessing it jumped from the flagpole, to the roof, down this pillar, over to the metal fixture that holds up glass shelves (~8' long) then grounds to the plumbing.

This is too wierd to have been talking about this on this board the last few days then ZZZZAAAPPP!

I'm not sure if I should take up religion or drinking….

MikeB

>>I'm not sure if I should take up religion or drinking….

How about Science?

>:-)>