Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Where Does Lightning strike?


Lightning usually strikes tall objects like buildings and trees. Lightning will also strike metal objects, such as the metal tip of an umbrella. If you're playing in an open field or park where there are no tall objects, we should go inside if thunderclouds appear. If you're swimming get out of water right away. When a thunderhead approaches, electricity is discharged by objects that are tall, made of metal or electrically charged. These are likely to be struck by lightning, which is an enormous discharge of electricity from a thunderhead. Such objects should be avoided when thunder is heard because the voltage in a bolt of lightning can easily cause death.
Posted by Rajeev at 11:25 PM

3 comments:

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  3. Metal object may be dangerous if they attract a streamer from a VERY near strike, but, on the whole, they don't make a lot of difference to where the main strike goes as they are pretty small compared to the total length of the lightening.

    In fact it's more complex than that. Lightening feels its way through what is a very poor conductor, air, breaking it down and discharging stray charges as it goes. Then there's usually a biggish spark, followed by a bigger return stroke. Metal objects can interfere with this process - tiny discharges from sharp edges and points can make the air conductive, and this allows the charges to be swept away, thus, suprisingly, forcing the lightening to find another path. That's how a lightening conductor works. Of course, it doesn't always happen, so sometimes the conductor really does have to conduct the lightening itself. A building may survive, a human probably won't.
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