Lightning strike (not jim beam story)

[Squeak 17]

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My question, if anyone knows, would be, could the lightning have really knocked me down (or did I just instinctively dive for the ground) and how close would it have to have been?
Judy

Definately can knock you over, and the large amount of electricity close to you can set your muscle fibres twitching, a large static shock can do the same thing.
If you were hit the chances are that you would have an exit and entry point for the charge, they would look like burn marks, because they are burn marks

You are not now, nor will you ever be, good enough to not die in this sport (Sparky)
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[billvon 3,111]

> He said that people that live through lightening "strikes" aren't really
>struck at all.. The ground near them was hit and they got a jolt as a
>result. The closer, the stronger the jolt. He also said a direct hit would
>essentially vaporize the person.

That's semantics. If all the energy contained in a lightning strike were transferred into a person, they would indeed be blown to bits (the water in them would boil, expand etc.) However, there have been plenty of people who have been struck on the top of their head and had the strike exit through their feet and not been vaporized (although parts of them sometimes are.) The reason is that power always takes the easiest path to ground, and once the air is ionized by the strike on your head, some will go through you, some will stick to the now-ionized air around you, some will travel through your clothing etc.

[billvon 3,111]

>but getting power from lightning is, in a single word, stupid. Where could
> you possibly put it?

>What could possibly absorb that much energy and then release it in a
>controlled manner?

A capacitor, for one thing. There's no inherent limit in how fast you can charge one. Lots of people are working on just this but for the opposite reasons - getting a cap bank to discharge incredibly quickly makes things like inertial confimenent fusion, laser weapons, and railguns possible. The same caps that can discharge gigajoules within milliseconds can accept gigajoules within milliseconds.

[Zenister 0]

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Further, lightning, while it does in fact strike the same place more than once, is awfully unpredictable in doing so.

and lighting rods can be used to fairly reliably attract it in high thunderstorm areas..Wendy may be able to give you better numbers, but a SP at Cape Canaveral once told me the shuttle platform would often take 5-10 strikes per hour during heavy thunderstorms..that alot of potential energy if we could figure out how to save it..

____________________________________
Those who fail to learn from the past are simply Doomed.

[QuickDraw 0]

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Where could you possibly put it?

I have an empty garage.

-- Hope you don't die. --

I'm fucking winning

[quade 4]

Key phrase "during heavy thunderstorms".

I realize the guys down in Florida get them almost every day during some parts of the year, but how could you count on that as an energy source?

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[turtlespeed 226]

Can't exactly Count on solar energy either...

I'm not usually into the whole 3-way thing, but you got me a little excited with that. - Skymama
BTR #1 / OTB^5 Official #2 / Hellfish #408 / VSCR #108/Tortuga/Orfun

[Zenister 0]

that is the difficulty..finding efficient capture and storage methods, i dont know that i'd trust it as a prime source, but in the right environment (just like solar, wind, or even hydro..) it could be a good supplemental source, there are just some technical hurdles to overcome..

besides how else am i going to animate this corpse i've got in my attic

____________________________________
Those who fail to learn from the past are simply Doomed.

[quade 4]

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Can't exactly Count on solar energy either...

Well, in some parts of the country, you can get pretty dang close! Maybe 300 or so days per year.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver