I'll be weathering this one. So to speak.
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Uh yes he did. But if it comes to your neighborhood the bathroom walls are the strongest. The steel pipes(Sorry if you got plastic) in the walls tend to help hold the integrity of the walls. In either case keep your head down.thibodeaux wrote:Didn't Catt say he was headed out to the beach this weekend?
Stay safe.
Im installing a 600 mile lead cord for my generator to Gordos house. I can just install a splitter.
In marriage there is always one person right. And the other one is the husband.
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Yikes. It's supposed to be around a 5 second gap between lightning and thunder per mile, so that was pretty close.TheCatt wrote:Yeah, nothing happened here, 'cept the mall and some places are closed.
On the other hand, I did get to kayak in the middle of a thunderstorm this past week. Once the lightning was under 3 mississippi it was a bit nerve-wracking.
I've always been curious about the dissipation of electricity in water. I used think that once it hit water it'd shoot in every direction, because a body of water would tend to have equal conductivity throughout most of its mass. So there's be a distance where the electricty would be dilluted enough that you'd only feel a tingle, and everyone that distance from the strike (in any direction) would feel about the same tingle. But then again, air tends to be equally conductive and lighting does take a definate path though that.
I know lightning spreads throughout the water to a small degree, just like it spreads some in as light and static electricity in the air. But if lightning hit a lake, would it spread out and dillute itself fairly evenly, or would there be "underwater lightning" with a definate concentrated path? In which case, three people could by kayaking and the one in the middle could be zapped while the other two were fine.
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Yeah, but a lake damn sure ain't pure.
Paul, I'd suggest reading this article about lightning..
Paul, I'd suggest reading this article about lightning..
thibodeaux wrote:Paul, I'd suggest reading this article about lightning..
I glanced throuugh it. I was familiar with a lot of it. However, I didn't happen upon anything having to do with the trajectory of the lightning bolt once it hits a body of water.
I used to think lightning just spread out throughout the water, until it was completey dissipated. My current idea is that most of it continues to streak down to the earth where it gounds itself (though it does spread some when it hits the water).
Well phooey on me.
This is the only thing I could find on the subject. It's sort of Mickey Mouse, so I wouldn't put to much stock in the scientific credability.
This is the only thing I could find on the subject. It's sort of Mickey Mouse, so I wouldn't put to much stock in the scientific credability.
What if the bolt strikes the water near the animal? Lightning comes in all shapes and sizes. What if it's a lesser discharge? This gets tricky but it would probably harm her, at least. If she's down deep, though, she's safe.
When lightning strikes the ocean or other large water bodies, it spreads out over the conducting surface. It also penetrates down and can kill fish in the nearby region, says Don MacGorman, physicist at the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL).
It depends entirely on the quality and distribution of dissolved or suspended conducting materials in the water.
"Pure" water (distilled and de-ionized, to be precise) is one of the best room-temp liquid insullators on the planet. My father used to run the Los Alamos Laser Fusion project for which they powered the laser with a man-made lightening bolt (using six tanks of capacitors big enough to swim laps in the oil) which they delivered down a 10-foot-diameter dual-pipe, the inner pipe containing ionized water to carry the bolt and the outer pipe containing de-ionized water to act as an insulator. It was quite a sight.
However, "pure" water only insullates for a matter of microseconds, after which it ionizes and starts to carry the charge.
As to the distribution, lightening in water follows the path of least resistance, just as in air. (FYI, this is me doing out-of-my-ass science again, so I may need correction from our resident scientist) Lightening can follow a straight path when the path of least resistance is a straight path, however the character of solutions in water is to be more uniform so that the lightening tends travel in water in sheets (which it can also do inatmosphere, but you don't see that lightening below the cloud level very often).
(If I need correction, I promise to not go nuts like last time. *grin*)
"Pure" water (distilled and de-ionized, to be precise) is one of the best room-temp liquid insullators on the planet. My father used to run the Los Alamos Laser Fusion project for which they powered the laser with a man-made lightening bolt (using six tanks of capacitors big enough to swim laps in the oil) which they delivered down a 10-foot-diameter dual-pipe, the inner pipe containing ionized water to carry the bolt and the outer pipe containing de-ionized water to act as an insulator. It was quite a sight.
However, "pure" water only insullates for a matter of microseconds, after which it ionizes and starts to carry the charge.
As to the distribution, lightening in water follows the path of least resistance, just as in air. (FYI, this is me doing out-of-my-ass science again, so I may need correction from our resident scientist) Lightening can follow a straight path when the path of least resistance is a straight path, however the character of solutions in water is to be more uniform so that the lightening tends travel in water in sheets (which it can also do inatmosphere, but you don't see that lightening below the cloud level very often).
(If I need correction, I promise to not go nuts like last time. *grin*)
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