Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;-jeffB, post: 3156795, member: 27832&quot;]I had lightning strike maybe a hundred feet away from me once. Early grad school days. I was out in the parking lot of my apartment complex watching a <i>nasty</i> storm come in, &#039;cause that&#039;s how I rolled, and the lightning was really fierce.</p><p><br /></p><p>During a brief lull, I started to feel the hair on the top of my head rise. (Ah, head hair, I remember it well). I might have been in the habit of taking dumb chances with storms, but I knew a good bit about electrostatics*, so I <i>bounded</i> back into the atrium of my building. As I got to the inner staircase, there was a deafening crash -- it had hit the building on the other side of the lot. I <i>probably</i> couldn&#039;t have <i>actually</i> called it down by raising my hand, but raising a metal-post umbrella might very well have done the trick. Or, cf. <i>Caddyshack</i>, a golf club.</p><p><br /></p><p>* Lightning is the discharge of a large electrostatic buildup. That buildup produces a voltage gradient, eventually strong enough to break down the air from an insulator to a conductor. &quot;Hair standing on end&quot; indicates that It&#039;s Happening -- if the field is strong enough to raise your hair, it&#039;s very close to strong enough to pull a spark. You do <i>not</i> want to be outstanding in <i>that</i> field.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in