Car hit by lightning

Discussion in 'The Lounge' started by shw, Feb 24, 2008.

  1. shw

    shw Well-Known Member

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    #1 shw, Feb 24, 2008
  2. WILLard

    WILLard Well-Known Member

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    so would it be safe for a person to be in a car that was hit by lightning?
     
    #2 WILLard, Feb 24, 2008
  3. uryu

    uryu Well-Known Member

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    ^ lol considering how there'll be a fire, i don't think so :X
     
    #3 uryu, Feb 24, 2008
  4. Maverick

    Maverick Lord Vader

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    I don't believe this since all modern cars are practically a Farraday cage.
    Cars and aircraft. When lightning strikes an aircraft or a car the electric currents induced on it are forced to travel on the outer skin of the vehicle's body. If you were in a car, and the car got struck by lightning, it is not in fact the rubber tires that would save your life. If the lightning can jump from the sky to your car, then it can jump from your car to the ground. What actually happens, is by being enclosed by the car's cabin, the lightning travels around you, though the conductive frame of the car. This is because the car forms a Faraday Cage. Other signals such as mobile phone signals penetrate the skin of cars and aircraft because the wavelength of the signal is significantly smaller than the holes present on the surface of the conductor (the windows). The BBC television program Top Gear once sat the presenter Richard Hammond in a car while it was struck by a simulated lightning bolt of 800,000 volts at the Siemens High-Voltage lab in Berlin.[
     
    #4 Maverick, Feb 24, 2008
  5. mr_evolution

    mr_evolution ( • )( •ԅ(ˆ⌣ˆԅ)

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    Is it true you have more chance of winning the lottery than getting struck by lightning?
     
    #5 mr_evolution, Feb 25, 2008