July 12, 2012 • 39 mins
You've seen lightning before, and maybe you're even afraid of it. You should be. The air is ripped apart and a sudden electrical discharge burning six times brighter than the sun connects with Earth. Learn all about it with Josh and Chuck.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should Know
from House Stuff Works dot Com? M Hey, and welcome
(00:43):
to the podcast. That is a pretty mellow intron. I'm Josh.
That's Chuck that makes stuff you should know. That's Jim Morrison, Yes,
it was. That was the doors Riders on the Storm.
We have Jim in the studio with us today. Yeah, Hey, Jim,
did you ever see that gap ad where they show
Jim Morrison off that and old? No, it was a
while ago, like probably ten years ago. They did some
(01:05):
of these sixties icons that passed away early as old people,
and like, really realistically, it's pretty funny. Yeah, I don't
recall that at all. And I've watched a lot of
TV where I used to I think it was a
magazine and pronounce oh, I read a lot of magazines.
Oh Fair used to alert for, used to alert um. So.
Riders on the Storm was released on the nineteen seventy
(01:27):
one album Ellie Woman, which we would imagine is available
at a wide variety of retailers online and at break
and mortar stores. Yeah. Great song. Yeah, and I'm kind
of over a lot of the Doors. But I like
that song, man, I go It's like, how I imagine
a lot of people are with Zeppelin. It's like, oh,
I love Zeppelin. I'm in sixth grade. Um, and then
it just kind of goes away. But then you get
(01:48):
older and you're like, wow, they really were great. That
didn't happen to be with Zeppelin. I got over him
after sixth grade, you know that. But the Doors, that's
happened to me. You're back into them again. Well, I
mean I just constantly am like in a state of
coming in or out of really appreciating the Doors. But
for the most part it's solidified as jelled. I love
the Doors. You know, if you want to keep that intact,
do yourself a favor and don't ever read any of
(02:09):
Jim Morrison's poetry books. I have I have. Have you
ever heard American Prayer? It's like one of the coolest
things anyone's ever made. I'm not a fan of his poetry. Well,
I mean, his songs were poetry. Writers on the Storm
is a poem set to music. He's the Lizard King. Yeah,
you can do anything, right, Um, So Chuck, have you
(02:30):
heard of a guy named Roy Sullivan. Yeah, I remember
him from being a kid, do you really Yeah? From
the old Guinness Book Record. Uh huh. I must have
skipped over his entry because I've read those two. I
remember when they come out and you'd be like, oh
my god. It would be like the Scholastic Book Fair,
which amounted to a couple of like cards with books
on him out the hallway and some guy who didn't
(02:50):
recognize standing there selling them. Um. I missed that one,
but let's tell everybody else. I haven't looked him up
since then, but if I remember correctly, he had the
record for being struck right lightning. Yeah, Roy Sullivan. He
was a ranger park ranger at Shenandoah National Park, okay
um and he died in Night three. In between nineteen
(03:12):
forty and nineteen seventy seven, he was struck seven times,
struck by lightning seven times. And actually there's two of
his rangers stets and hats that he was wearing while
he was struck that are in the Guinness World Record.
I guess museums and they have like burnt holes in them, right, yeah,
Well you're just smiling. I remember seeing the picture. I
(03:34):
could picture it in my head. He did not die
of being struck by lightning. He died what a full
six years after the last time he was struck. Yeah,
from like plugging in something in his house and getting shocked.
He's like stripped on a banana peal Right, um, so
it's it's I guess I bring this up because we're
talking about lightning, and you brought up a really excellent
(03:55):
point that his stets and hat was burned, but this
guy survived. Even the lightning is many, many, many times
more powerful than you know, a typical industrial electrocution voltage
that will just typically kill anybody. Lightning frequently people survive.
As a matter of fact, like two thirds of people
who are struck by lightning survive between two thirds depending
(04:19):
on who you ask. That's pretty good. So I am
very excited about this one. Classic. I love natural phenomena.
I do too. I love earth sciences. I don't know
I do because I get it. Once you get it,
it's like geometry, Like once you get geometry, you can't
get geometry, and all of a sudden, this whole segment
(04:43):
of of the of nature just becomes clear to you. Well,
I'm glad you're covering this side of the love because
I don't have it. You don't know. I mean, I
think it's neat enough, but I'm not I'm not as
into the earth sciences at the very least. The pictures
in this article are really, really awesome. Did you get
to see some of them? I mean those are pretty,
(05:04):
very pretty black and whiten. That's still worth looking at
that all those leaders If you want to go, if
you want to go to the website how stuff Works
dot com and type and lightning, it will bring up
a lot of these pictures, but in color. We just
don't print in color here occasionally, But do you if
it's something that I think should be in color, I
like to preserve Cian go Alright, So Chuck, let's talk lightning,
(05:27):
shall we? Sure you got your statman role? Did you
read that one thing? The NASA article. There's some stats
in there that I thought you'd just have a bonanza with.
I didn't get to it. Oh, buddy, all right, I'll
play the stat man role there because there there were
some good stats in there. Do you want me to
start out with a few, Chuck? I between between this
(05:50):
one's study of lightning strikes between ninety found that let's
see nine thousand, eight hundred and eighteen people were struck
by lightning in that time. Three thousand, two hundred and
thirty nine died died immediately like it was like, you're
just struck by lightning. You're over. Um that that's got
(06:11):
to be like a direct strike, right, all of them
are direct strikes as far as I understand, Yes, we're
all direct strikes. Like you can be struck directly like uh,
ranger Roy and he survived. Um. Men are four times
likelier than women to be struck by lightning. Um. The
(06:32):
two thirds of lightning casualties occurred between twelve pm and
four pm, with the maximum at four pm. Yes. Uh,
most of the most lightning casualties happened on a Sunday
or with and Wednesday is the second most frequent day,
and then July is the peak month. Florida is the
state that has the most reported lightning strikes for people.
(06:54):
So if it's four pm on a Wednesday in July
and you're in Florida, uh, and you're a man holding
like a golf club, kiss your but combining the good
Lord would never stop the best game of golf, I think, Uh.
I remember in a different podcast, we talked about the
fourth of July actually being the number one day. I
(07:16):
think I remember that as well, and I think that's
part and partial to the fact that July is the
biggest month and there are way more people outside recreating
your bodies of water on the fourth of July, which
you know, water of course could help. Yeah. I knew
this dude who public who actually printed the the alternative
paper that I helped found, and uh, he would say
(07:39):
that he was vacating. We're gonna vacate for two weeks
to me and the family every going down to Disney
World to vacake. That's pretty funny. The only little cool
factoids I have are lightning is not necessarily always white
or white ash yellow and has to do with the background. Yeah,
and that lightning is only an inch y Yeah. I
(08:01):
saw it was one to two inches in diameter. Yeah,
that's it. And it's hot six degrees or six times
hotter than the surface of the sun. I saw sixty. Yeah,
I'd say that's in the same range. I mean, that's
six that's not much when you're up that I yeah,
it'll fry an egg for sure. Um, So you you
(08:24):
say that there are some cool fact toys associated with lightning.
I say that lightning as a whole is one cool
factoid made up of smaller component factoids. Yea. And also
I'm sure somebody's can be like you guys used the
word factoid wrong, but we will decimate that person alright. Uh,
(08:44):
do we need to start with with clouds since we've
covered that so thoroughlier. I feel like we do because
with this process of cloud formation it is part and
parcel with lightning formation. They think we should really point
out here, man that it's not just this article, it's
not just how stuff works. That says that scientists aren't
really sure how all this happens. Um NASA says, so
(09:05):
the the um, oh, what's the what's the National Laboratory
begins with the A. Man, well, anyway, one of the
National Laboratory says though that I write about UM. So basically,
we don't fully understand how lightning forms, but it's invisible.
We have some good guesses it occurs within the second
(09:27):
So it's like, it's not the easiest thing in the
world to study. No, it's really not, you know about it.
We can recreate it, which is pretty neat. Okay, so UM.
But yes, let's start with precipitation in the water cycle. Right,
You've got um water say here on the Earth's surface. Um,
when heat is transferred from the environment, remember he always
goes from something that's warm to something that's cold. That's
(09:49):
how heat transfer occurs. Something doesn't lose its cold, it
gains heat, right, that's right. Um. So when that happens,
water can vaporize and rise up into the atmosphere. That's
a VA operation. And once it reaches a certain point,
it's going to lose its heat to the external environment.
It's gonna turn back into water. It's gonna fall back
(10:09):
down to the ground. In the foreign precipitation, that's condensation, right,
So it's either going to get slightly chilly and be rained,
or it's gonna get really chilly and the snow or
freezing rain. Right. So, if you get enough water vapor
going up, and you get enough um condensation starting to
come down and they start knocking into each other. This
is what scientists think. Um, they can start knocking electrons
(10:32):
from one another. The electrons are gonna keep going down,
They're going to um stay say as a cloud forms,
they're gonna they're gonna accumulate around the bottom of the
cloud like a little, a little puffy cloud couch there
that at the bottom of the clouds all tuck the
just settle in and nestle down. And then for for
just for this um example sake, think of positively charged particles,
(10:56):
the ones that are now missing their electrons um are
just lighter, so they're gonna accumulate at the top, but
they're contained in the cloud. Right. So at the top
of the cloud you have all these positively charged particles,
at the bottom you have negatively charged particles electrons, and
all of a sudden you have what's called an electric
field charge separation, which is uh, can do some funky stuff. Well,
(11:18):
that's how batteries work because chuck, as you'll remember, nature
loves homeostasis. Yeah, if it's these things are separate, they
just want to bring them back together exactly. Electrons love
to flow toward the direction of positively charged particles to
neutralize it. And that's an electric charge. It's electricity is
(11:38):
just an electron flow. Okay, So you have a cloud
that's suddenly like a battery, a big honkin battery. Yeah,
and um as this as this uh, this charge separation
becomes more and more charged like that, there's more and
more positive particles, more and more negative particles. It actually,
as these negative particles are the electrons are accumulating at
(12:01):
the bottom of the cloud, they the charge can become
so great that here on the Earth's surface, dude, it
actually presses the electrons down into the earth. Yeah. And
it's hard to imagine this, but it happens when you're
walking around out there during a thunderstorm, like it is
being pushed below your feet, leaving the ground positively charged
and ready to join their little buddies up there in
(12:23):
the clouds. So you have this layer of electrons and
now you have to basically two electric fields that can
either go up within the cloud or it can go
down to the ground. Yeah, that's a common like that
was my first question was if these electrons within the
cloud are separated, why are they going all the way
(12:44):
down to Earth. Why don't they just you know, have
lightning inside the cloud. And the answer is, well, that
happens all the time. That's the most common form of lightning, uh,
is when the electrons form lightning within it's a little
fluffy buddy there with It's like cloud to cloud or
intra cloud lightning. Intra cloud is within the same cloud
between two clouds, but it's it's still falls in the
(13:06):
cloud to cloud category. So I think there's two main division,
cloud to cloud and cloud to ground, and then ground
to cloud is also ground to cloud still, but it's
not because it's going between the ground and cloud or
between a cloud and itself for another cloud. Yeah, I
like a little cloud on cloud action this one. Okay,
(13:26):
So you have this um do you have the Earth
suddenly taking on a positive charge on its surface. You
have a strong negative charge at the bottom of the um,
at the bottom of the cloud, and you have nature
going like what's to do? This is terrible, Like there's
an electrical potential here and it's making me nervous. Like
something has to change. So something does change. There's this
(13:48):
process called the ionization of air, and it's basically turning
air into what's called plasma by ripping it apart essentially. Yeah,
like to call it ionic separation. Up coined that term nice.
I don't know if it's what anyone else in science
calls it, but basically the air around the cloud breaks down, so, uh,
(14:12):
the electric field is really strong. It separates the ions.
Now they can move a lot more freely and can
conduct a lot more electricity. Well, yeah, it takes regular
air like the stuff we're breathing now, and it separates
the electrons from the positive ions. Yeah, but not they're
still within the same area. They're not like completely separate, right,
(14:32):
It's not like it's not like um opening the curtains
with two hands, but it is kind of in a
certain way. With these free electrons, it makes this little
bit of air that that's been ionized much more conductive,
like you said, plasma. Okay, so these things this happens
in little like fifty yard jolts, and they call those
(14:54):
step leaders. Each little each little rip, each little separation
of creation. The plasma creates a channel in the air
that it's very conductive, way more conductive than the surrounding air.
And it happened a little fifty yard branches. Yeah, and
they don't have to go straight down. They're basically looking
they're looking to get to the ground with a path
of least resistance. So if you see this. Discovery had
(15:16):
a show did you see that on YouTube? The what
was it called Raging Planet. Discovery had a show called raging,
and for the first time they filmed a lightning strike
in the super slow mow. So when you see this
like with your naked eye, I mean it all happens
in a blip and you see a lightning strike. But
when you see it slowed down, you see the lightning
(15:38):
working its way down in the little fifty yard bits
and fracturing off to the left and to the right
and basically like disappearing again because it didn't find its
way all the way to the ground. Oh yeah, yeah,
it would just go like so left and then disappear,
and then it'll go down, and then it'll go to
the right and disappear. These channels that that form. Basically
(15:59):
you have a bunch of the step leaders coming down
and whichever reaches the ground first winds. But just because
one reach the ground doesn't mean the other ones automatically disappear.
So that flow of electrons is going to fill up
all of the associated um ion channels UM with this
(16:19):
flow of electrons, right, So um, before that happens, though,
you've got these step leaders coming down from the clouds,
you also have something called um positive leaders, right, it's
positive streamers. I'm sorry. You also have positive streamers coming
up from the ground. So a positive streamer is a
(16:39):
or a step leader is a plasma channel forming in
the direction of the flow of electrons. A positive streamer
is a plasma channel forming in the opposite direction of
the flow of electrons. So it's kind of stretching up.
And it could come from the ground, it could come
from your head, it could come from a tree or
that golf club you're holding. And they've captured these in
(17:01):
photographic form, and it's the same thing. It looks like,
you know, a little purplish bolt of lightning coming up
from the ground trying to join up with its buddy
that's coming down from the sky. Yeah. And like you said,
I it can come from you. The reason your hair
lifts up when you're in like an electrical storm, you
just become a positive streamer, which is not good. It
sounds nice, it does, and you're glowing a little purplish,
(17:22):
but you're in big trouble if it connects with you. Yeah,
And it's the same concept. If you've ever uh shocked
yourself on a door knob, it's the same thing. The
closer you're and once you've built up that energy, the
hand gets closer to the metal, and it leaps out
from your finger and out from the door knob, and
you know you've got lightning. Okay, So I mean we're
drawing this out like I'm about to hyperventilate and I'm
(17:44):
so excited. Finally, at one point you have a step leader,
and like you said, it's taken the path of least resistance, right,
So it's not going to come straight down, largely because
the shape of the cloud is not equal or is
not totally flat. Particles in the air can get in
the way, all kinds of stuff, right, So, um, they're
coming down in little branches that branch off suddenly nowhere.
Eventually one comes down and a step leader connects with
(18:07):
a positive streamer, and all of a sudden, you have
a full uninterrupted path for these electrons to flow, and
boy do they flow. What you have is lightning, right.
You have a sudden current exchange from the cloud down
to the earth and then from the earth back up
to the cloud. Because the lightning stroke isn't just from
(18:29):
the cloud to the ground. It goes down and then
back up immediately and it's on the back up. Yeah,
return stroke, Yes, a return stroke. Thank you. On the
way back up. That's when you see the light literally,
so lightning is we we don't actually see the electron flow.
We see the local effects of the electron flow. And um,
(18:51):
this electron flow produces a tremendous amount of heat energy
Like what did you say? It was like hotter than
the surface of the sun, six times hotter. So that's
that's what you're seeing, right. There is an explosion of heat, right,
and then that heat actually explodes the air around it,
and that produces thunder. Yeah. Um, the way I understood
(19:13):
it was the channel, the ionized plasma channel that's created
when it goes away, the air collapsing back in on
itself is what creates that sound, that sound wave? Is
that right? What I heard was that it's actually exploding
outward and it's compressing the air, basically exploding the air
around it. That converts into a shock wave in the
(19:34):
form of sound that travels outward. That's how I understood it. Well,
maybe it collapses in and explodes out that's very um,
that's very democratic of you. And then one more thing
about thunder, Chuck, get this, there's three segments to the
sound of thunder. Did you know that I thought Pink
Floyd said that was like four. Really, I'm just kidding, okay,
(19:56):
because I remember delicates onund of thunder, but I don't
remember four parts. Okay. So there's the first part um
if I mean think about it. Think about when you've
ever heard thunder. It's like a there's like a few
sounds to it, right, So the first part is actually
um caused by the step leaders. Right, that's a tearing sound.
(20:16):
The second, a cracking sound, is actually caused by the
positive streamers. And then the third part is the explosion
of the air blowing up. But what you're hearing those
first two parts is literally the air ripping open and
they crazy yep. And if you are out in the country,
you might be able to hear that as far away
(20:37):
as fifteen miles. If you're in the city, maybe about
five miles, you'll be able to hear that thunder. And
it is true that you can divide by five and
that is roughly how far away your lightning is from you.
That's counting from the point the lightning strikes till you
hear the thunder. Divide that amount of seconds by five.
(21:00):
Ten seconds, it's two miles away. Is that how does
that rule of thumb work? I mean, don't storms travel faster? Well, no,
I think it has nothing to do with how faster traveling.
It's um the speed of light versus the speed of sound.
Oh yeah, because the speed of light travels at the
speed of light travel. The speed of sound is far
far slower, which is why the sound of thunder lags
the the flash of lightning so much. You just explained
(21:23):
it to yourself. Thank you. Thanks, So, I think it's
time for lightning myth number one. Whoa, that's a good
sound effect. All right, lightning myth number one? Once again,
The tallest objects in a storm don't always get struck
by lightning. Uh. It would make sense that lightning, if
(21:45):
you know, if it's gonna be reaching something that's sticking
up from the ground in the way of a positive streamer,
that the tallest thing will always be that thing. And
that is not the case because you can never really
predict the path of lightning. No, I strike the ground
right next to the tallest thing. It might also, yes,
because the the that path of least resistance, whether it's
(22:07):
dust or or the curvature of the earth or whatever.
That's Yeah, you can't predict where it's gonna go. And
even more than that, once the lightning is struck, it
may jump. Oh yeah, that is a property of lightning,
and may jump to something that has an even even
lesser path of resistance. UM, and that could be you.
So it could strike a tree that you're standing by
(22:29):
and you could be like whoo and then yeah, uh
the way, I guess, way to bust that myth? Thank you. UM.
I think since you brought that up, we might as
well talk about, um, the fact that when you see
lightning and you see it in the clouds and then
down on the ground and then flickering in the clouds afterward,
and remnants branching off, that's like maybe forty or fifty
(22:52):
lightning strikes. You're seeing all at once. It's the whole
idea that lightning doesn't strike the same place twice. Every
time it strikes it twice. It strikes it like like
you said, um, yeah, it's this that that electron flow,
the back and forth between the ground and the earth
in this um which neutralizes the electrical charge. It's not
(23:12):
just one stroke. It's forty or fifty and that's what
you're more likely to see, even unless you just happen
to be looking in the field of view with that
original blast. That's why it's so tough to capture, like
the Discovery Channel gown Raging Planet. Was he like, sits
in the room with this little camera and I would
just let the camera run. I don't know why he
sat there with his finger on the button. It's like, dude,
(23:33):
just press record and walk away. But I guess, well,
I think maybe because it's such a high speed camera.
Plus also hips thematic doesn't have a video function. But
he likened it to fishing. He's it's a little like fishing.
Did he say it like that like a jerk. Yeah,
he was a little bored. Uh, but he got it.
You know, it was all worth it in in the end.
(23:53):
That's what counts, Okay, Josh, I think it's time to
talk about various types of lightning. Yeah, so we talked
about UM ground two or cloud to ground under an
umbrella under which ground to cloud falls UM and this
another way to put it is that's triggered or artificial
(24:15):
and natural. Natural is when it comes down from the
cloud to the ground. UM triggered or artificial is when
some sort of man made structure, say a skyscraper initiates
this lightning, so it's sending up a positive streamer like
hey man, come on, let's do this, and the clouds
like okay, and then it comes down rather than the
cloud pressing down the electrons I think, on the earth
(24:38):
surface and then just hitting a cow, because what's more
natural than lightning striking a cow? That's right. Instant primary
um types of lightning. Normal lightning, which pretty much is
what we've been talking about. Sheet lightning is reflected in
the clouds, and I guess that would paul under intra
and inter cloud lightning. I would think so. Heat lightning
(24:59):
is my favorite because that reminds me of growing up,
going to Florida and swimming at my cousin's house. And
heat lining is basically lightning this so far away you
can't hear the thunder right, and it's hot enough. The
reason they call it heat lightning um is because it's
hot enough that it's being reflected a tremendous distance by
this higher temperature atmosphere. It's a comforting lightning, though it
(25:21):
is in during the summer months. Um Ball lightning, which
we have talked about before, we were entirely certain back
then that it actually existed. But I think since we've
mentioned it that really is it super proven that we've
figured out that it can exist but no one understands it. Yeah,
that's the phenomenon where like you will see a ball
(25:43):
of lightning going through your house. Correct, Yes, I remember
it was like one of the some listener wrote wrote
in about it. Yeah, was it like the um spontaneous combustion.
I don't know that I've ever seen it captured though
on film Ernie thing. Has it been? Yes, it's been recreated,
that's I don't think it's been. Someone hasn't caught the
(26:06):
natural version of it. But yeah, so we've proven it
can exist. Um. But yeah, it'll burn you and then
it'll blow up. It's really dangerous, scary, crazy lightning that
no one gets. Josh, is it time for lightning? Myth
number two? It sounds like it number two. And this
(26:27):
is something I learned today. A search protector will not
save your computer and your television from a lightning strike.
I thought that's what they were for. Apparently they're only
for They can only um save your computer or TV
if it's something that the power company has searched. It's
a searge from your electrical supply. So what you need
(26:51):
is something called a what's it called a lightning arrested
And I've seen that, um, and they're relatively inexpensive, and
it's filled up with a gas that well, I mean
it was like thirty bucks. Oh yeah, that's not bad. Yeah.
I thought you're gonna be like compared to a new Volvo.
Well that's what I thought. A lightning arrestaurant sounded and
(27:11):
it was filled with gas that diffuses the charge. I
thought it'd be like ten bucks. But now even with
gas prices today, that's right. Um. So we talked about
types of lightning. We should probably talk about lightning rods
at some point, like maybe now, So do you know
Ben Franklin actually invented these things? And I went and
double checked, like I was like, this sounds like four
(27:34):
year old textbook stuff. Yeah, but it's true, wouldn't it.
And I also remembered, oh, wait, like his kite experiment
he ripped off a couple of frenchmen. I went and
checked that out, and no, actually he Franklin had conducted
some sort of experiments and possibly proposed a kite experiment
and these frenchmen. He published his results in the early
(27:54):
seventeen fifties and a couple of frenchmen, um like, carried
him out. So the Frenchman actually did did do this,
um But Ben Franklin did develop lightning rods as early
as like the seventeen forties, I believe. But he did
have a kite key experiment, right he did. Okay, I
don't know if he it's not certain that he actually
(28:14):
carried out the gutch the key on the kite experiment
or just said, you know, this theoretically could work. It's
a thought experiment. Don't be so stupid to go do this. Well,
let's call that lightning my number three okay, and here's
some retroactive lightning for that one in thunder. WHOA all right?
But he did develop the lightning rod. And basically a
(28:37):
lightning rod is a metal rod on the roof of
the building that is attached to a metal wire that
runs into the ground and it's it's job is to
either divert that direct lightning strike into the ground and
diffuse it quickly, or if it's jumping around, to collect
that and diffuse it so it doesn't cause like super
(28:58):
lots of damage to the cry for building. Right, but
it doesn't attract lightning. It says, hey, lightning, I got
a positive streamer and I'm not gonna resist you at all.
Just take me and um, the lightning will be like, hey,
you look pretty good, and um, there you go. But
it doesn't attract lightning. And I know the article says
that's nitpicking, but it's really not. There's not a different
(29:21):
thing offering a good path of least resistance lightning and
attracting it. Yeah, because the whoever wrote this article, who
was this, Yeah, I don't, I'd never I didn't recognize
the name. I think it's an old article basically said
the lightning is gonna be happening anyway, so it's not
like it's going to cause lightning to strike there. So
that made that made a lot of sense. They also
made a pretty good point that, um, because lightning rods
(29:45):
conduct electricity so well, that makes them they're not going
to be singed or burned or whatever it's when you
resist that, lightning burns you. Right. So like if lightning
strikes the like the wood of a house, Um, then
the woods not a very good conductor, which means it's
going to be a high amount of burning heat damage
(30:06):
because of resistance produces this heat energy. That makes sense. Yeah, Um,
what else do we have? Do we have another lightning myth? Man,
they're just coming hard and fast these days. We saved
them all, right, Lightning myth number four, the Faraday cage. Right, So, um,
(30:28):
you are in a car and it's a lightning storm.
You've actually saw shelter in a car. Good move. And
most people think that's because the tires on the car
are touching the ground and they're rubber and they're a
good insulator. Not true. In a lightning storm, rubber actually
becomes pretty conductive when especially when it's struck by lightning.
(30:50):
But if your car struck by lightning, you should be
fairly protected because of this thing called the Faraday cage,
named after Michael Faraday, the early electrical genius, but I
think the eighteenth century. Yeah, I think he's the one
that first described what an electrical field is period. Yeah,
he was just a very smart guy. The fact that
he didn't die of electrocution is really something that means
(31:11):
he's super smart. But he realized that if you if
you put something in a metal cage and apply an
electrical charge current to the cage. What's inside the cage
will be fine because electricity passes that along the outside
of the metal cage, the Faraday cage. Well engineers incorporate
that into automobile design. So it's a pretty good place
to seek shelter. You don't want to be laying naked
(31:31):
on the hood of your car, no, but being inside
your car would be would be a pretty good place
to be. Uh. Yeah, Just it has nothing to do
with your tires stuff. Don't be a dummy. And I
guess that's our first tip if we're going to give
some lightning tips. If you are out out and about
and if you're driving around Kansas. I don't know why,
I God forbid you would be doing anything like that,
(31:53):
But stay in your car or get in your car. Yeah,
if you don't have a car. Don't go under a tree.
Don't go climb the flagpole. Right. Uh. They say to
put your feet close together and crouch down to the ground. Yes,
but keep your head as low to the ground as
you can get it without touching the ground. Do not
(32:15):
don't let anything but the bottom of your shoes touch
the ground because when lightning strikes, it sends an electrical
current across the ground as well. Right, So if your
head happens to be touching all of a sudden, you
just had a struck or some sort of neurological damage
because you just got struck by lightning. Drest at the
very least. Yeah. Um. But and also if you are
(32:36):
crouched down, you're providing less of a chance to create
a positive streamer with your body. So you want to
find shelter. And if you can't find shelter, you want
to crouch down, keep your head low and but not
touching the ground. And also there's a study in Japan,
Chuck that found that, Um, once you hear thunder, there
(32:58):
is no safe interval where you're not vulnerable to a
direct lightning strike. By the time you hear thunder, it's
already there. It's already too late. You could be struck
by lightning in any second. So there's no warning sound. Then, no,
And you also want to get out of pools because
they are really good at conducting electricity. Yeah, don't stand
(33:19):
around in water. No, it's not a good idea. Um,
stay off the telephone. If you still have a telephone
that's plugged into a cord on a wall. If you
buy things that have the s C N on TV label.
Stay off the phone means you're also in Kansas too, interestingly, Um,
and they say, you know, stay out of the bathtub
(33:40):
a because it's got water. But one of the other
reasons if you're in an older house, um, you're plumbing
pipes are gonna be uh pretty good conductors and attractors
of that electricity. But the newer house probably PBC right exactly,
So if you didn't skimp when you redid your house,
you might have paid for copper. Yeah, it's true. You
(34:01):
you really want to remember or we should just be like,
let's just not take a bath for a shower while
there's a lightning storm. Um. And then I guess is
that it for the lightning myths too? Um? I think
so I have uh no more little factoids on my
sheet either, I've got one. All right, let's hear it.
(34:22):
Carol Apathy caro onopathy. It's the study of lightnings effects
on the human body, the study of the pathology of
light I was mentioned in there. Okay, isn't that cool though,
like talk about a specialized field like not not the
effects of electricity on the human body and the effects
(34:42):
of lightning striking the human body. Did they study people
like Sullivan? I imagine he was he saw a karenopathist
or two. I bet you, like he had to have
become more susceptible, right, Like, is that possible? I don't know.
I think could be a lightning myth that we might
not dispel at this time. I mean, I would think
(35:04):
of the guy got I mean, granted, he's a park ranger,
so he's out there at least that you mentioned his
stetson having a burn. So despite the fact that like lightning,
UM is six times hotter than the sun, produces heat
six times hotter than the sun, heats the air to
like eighteen thou degrees, causing it to explode, it can
still hit a human and the only burn wounds typically
(35:25):
are at the point of entry in the point of exit.
How does it not kill people all the time? I
don't know that one thing that they say is possible UM.
The one possible explanation is that it happens so fast
that it doesn't have the same amount of time that
a UM like an industrial electrocution has. Interesting and remember
(35:48):
the hysterical strength thing. Do you want to tell him
why people are thrown with electricity. Uh what was it?
Oh yeah, that's right. It's it's not the actual blast,
it's the surge of adrenaline is so great that you
have this superhuman strength and sort of leap back from it,
and your muscles can track so hard and so fast
that you throw yourself. Yeah, that's crazy. With lightning, I
(36:08):
don't think that's true. I think the shock wave can
actually throw you. You know my grandfather, Uh that eventually
led to his death. He was electrician. Oh yeah, I
think I might have told the story. He was at
the top of a thing and used to test electricity
with the back of your hand so it doesn't latch on,
and it popped him out. He hit a live war
and it knocked him out of a telephone pole and
(36:29):
he laid on his head. Oh man, and it was
like bedridden for the rest of his life. And oh man, yeah,
are you serious? I did not know that. Yeah, wow,
that was Granddaddy Bryant. I was a little kid. I
mean he died when I was like six, So all
I ever knew of him was he was kind of
this big scary guy in hospital bed who gave you candy.
(36:51):
Candy and like Buffalo Nichols. Well, okay, that was a
bummer way to end this one. Yeah. Um, let's see
you got any other terrible stories now, okay, well, then
let's go to listener mail. Oh wait, at first I
didn't even say how stuff works? What is wrong with me?
Do you want to see some very pretty lightning pictures? Um,
(37:12):
and read more about lightning? You can just type that in.
This is like a seminal article for how stuff works.
It's like bread and butter stuff lightning search bar how
stuff works dot com. Now it's time for listener mail,
josh Im. We call this uh email I just received,
you know, ten minutes ago. Oh okay, hot off the presses.
(37:34):
Guys and Jerry have been wanting to write for ages,
and now I actually have things to say. I've been
listening to the podcast for years, and I probably listen
to them and never listened to the few in the
beginning before you two teamed up. Now that's pretty nice. Um,
I learned so much from them. Your podcast is the
reason I survived mowing lawns for a summer without my
brain becoming much from the endless walking back and forth.
(37:57):
What I really want to write and say, though, is,
thanks for helping me get into my college. My main
essay for applying to colleges was about your podcast. I
entitled it Healthcare to zoot Suits, and I talked all
about the things I've learned from your podcast, hoping it
would show the college is um that I was curious,
well rounded, and had a thirst for knowledge. Apparently worked,
(38:18):
because I was accepted to several colleges. I will be
a freshman at st Olaf College next year next fall.
I don't know if they had a team, saying Olaf,
they're like the fighting roses from Golden Girls. Really, that's
where rose from Golden Girls from st Olaf? Really? Yeah,
I didn't watch Golden Girls. What had I don't know
(38:39):
it didn't It's not too late so on lifetime every days.
Far than all right? So Aaron M. From Green Bay, Wisconsin. Uh,
congratulations for getting into st Olaf College. Jesus, thanks for
the inspiration and good luck in college is gonna be great.
It only gets better from from there. In my opinion,
life A agree, but then it starts to go down.
(39:03):
But that'll be a while. But I thought that was
like fifty when that happened. Uh yeah, well we'll see. Okay,
so congratulations Aaron. Um, if you are someone who has
used us to further your own agenda, say like getting
into college or getting a date or whatever, we want
to hear that kind of story. UM. You can tweet
(39:24):
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(39:52):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready, are you
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should Know
from House Stuff Works dot Com? M Hey, and welcome
(00:43):
to the podcast. That is a pretty mellow intron. I'm Josh.
That's Chuck that makes stuff you should know. That's Jim Morrison, Yes,
it was. That was the doors Riders on the Storm.
We have Jim in the studio with us today. Yeah, Hey, Jim,
did you ever see that gap ad where they show
Jim Morrison off that and old? No, it was a
while ago, like probably ten years ago. They did some
(01:05):
of these sixties icons that passed away early as old people,
and like, really realistically, it's pretty funny. Yeah, I don't
recall that at all. And I've watched a lot of
TV where I used to I think it was a
magazine and pronounce oh, I read a lot of magazines.
Oh Fair used to alert for, used to alert um. So.
Riders on the Storm was released on the nineteen seventy
(01:27):
one album Ellie Woman, which we would imagine is available
at a wide variety of retailers online and at break
and mortar stores. Yeah. Great song. Yeah, and I'm kind
of over a lot of the Doors. But I like
that song, man, I go It's like, how I imagine
a lot of people are with Zeppelin. It's like, oh,
I love Zeppelin. I'm in sixth grade. Um, and then
it just kind of goes away. But then you get
(01:48):
older and you're like, wow, they really were great. That
didn't happen to be with Zeppelin. I got over him
after sixth grade, you know that. But the Doors, that's
happened to me. You're back into them again. Well, I
mean I just constantly am like in a state of
coming in or out of really appreciating the Doors. But
for the most part it's solidified as jelled. I love
the Doors. You know, if you want to keep that intact,
do yourself a favor and don't ever read any of
(02:09):
Jim Morrison's poetry books. I have I have. Have you
ever heard American Prayer? It's like one of the coolest
things anyone's ever made. I'm not a fan of his poetry. Well,
I mean, his songs were poetry. Writers on the Storm
is a poem set to music. He's the Lizard King. Yeah,
you can do anything, right, Um, So Chuck, have you
(02:30):
heard of a guy named Roy Sullivan. Yeah, I remember
him from being a kid, do you really Yeah? From
the old Guinness Book Record. Uh huh. I must have
skipped over his entry because I've read those two. I
remember when they come out and you'd be like, oh
my god. It would be like the Scholastic Book Fair,
which amounted to a couple of like cards with books
on him out the hallway and some guy who didn't
(02:50):
recognize standing there selling them. Um. I missed that one,
but let's tell everybody else. I haven't looked him up
since then, but if I remember correctly, he had the
record for being struck right lightning. Yeah, Roy Sullivan. He
was a ranger park ranger at Shenandoah National Park, okay
um and he died in Night three. In between nineteen
(03:12):
forty and nineteen seventy seven, he was struck seven times,
struck by lightning seven times. And actually there's two of
his rangers stets and hats that he was wearing while
he was struck that are in the Guinness World Record.
I guess museums and they have like burnt holes in them, right, yeah,
Well you're just smiling. I remember seeing the picture. I
(03:34):
could picture it in my head. He did not die
of being struck by lightning. He died what a full
six years after the last time he was struck. Yeah,
from like plugging in something in his house and getting shocked.
He's like stripped on a banana peal Right, um, so
it's it's I guess I bring this up because we're
talking about lightning, and you brought up a really excellent
(03:55):
point that his stets and hat was burned, but this
guy survived. Even the lightning is many, many, many times
more powerful than you know, a typical industrial electrocution voltage
that will just typically kill anybody. Lightning frequently people survive.
As a matter of fact, like two thirds of people
who are struck by lightning survive between two thirds depending
(04:19):
on who you ask. That's pretty good. So I am
very excited about this one. Classic. I love natural phenomena.
I do too. I love earth sciences. I don't know
I do because I get it. Once you get it,
it's like geometry, Like once you get geometry, you can't
get geometry, and all of a sudden, this whole segment
(04:43):
of of the of nature just becomes clear to you. Well,
I'm glad you're covering this side of the love because
I don't have it. You don't know. I mean, I
think it's neat enough, but I'm not I'm not as
into the earth sciences at the very least. The pictures
in this article are really, really awesome. Did you get
to see some of them? I mean those are pretty,
(05:04):
very pretty black and whiten. That's still worth looking at
that all those leaders If you want to go, if
you want to go to the website how stuff Works
dot com and type and lightning, it will bring up
a lot of these pictures, but in color. We just
don't print in color here occasionally, But do you if
it's something that I think should be in color, I
like to preserve Cian go Alright, So Chuck, let's talk lightning,
(05:27):
shall we? Sure you got your statman role? Did you
read that one thing? The NASA article. There's some stats
in there that I thought you'd just have a bonanza with.
I didn't get to it. Oh, buddy, all right, I'll
play the stat man role there because there there were
some good stats in there. Do you want me to
start out with a few, Chuck? I between between this
(05:50):
one's study of lightning strikes between ninety found that let's
see nine thousand, eight hundred and eighteen people were struck
by lightning in that time. Three thousand, two hundred and
thirty nine died died immediately like it was like, you're
just struck by lightning. You're over. Um that that's got
(06:11):
to be like a direct strike, right, all of them
are direct strikes as far as I understand, Yes, we're
all direct strikes. Like you can be struck directly like uh,
ranger Roy and he survived. Um. Men are four times
likelier than women to be struck by lightning. Um. The
(06:32):
two thirds of lightning casualties occurred between twelve pm and
four pm, with the maximum at four pm. Yes. Uh,
most of the most lightning casualties happened on a Sunday
or with and Wednesday is the second most frequent day,
and then July is the peak month. Florida is the
state that has the most reported lightning strikes for people.
(06:54):
So if it's four pm on a Wednesday in July
and you're in Florida, uh, and you're a man holding
like a golf club, kiss your but combining the good
Lord would never stop the best game of golf, I think, Uh.
I remember in a different podcast, we talked about the
fourth of July actually being the number one day. I
(07:16):
think I remember that as well, and I think that's
part and partial to the fact that July is the
biggest month and there are way more people outside recreating
your bodies of water on the fourth of July, which
you know, water of course could help. Yeah. I knew
this dude who public who actually printed the the alternative
paper that I helped found, and uh, he would say
(07:39):
that he was vacating. We're gonna vacate for two weeks
to me and the family every going down to Disney
World to vacake. That's pretty funny. The only little cool
factoids I have are lightning is not necessarily always white
or white ash yellow and has to do with the background. Yeah,
and that lightning is only an inch y Yeah. I
(08:01):
saw it was one to two inches in diameter. Yeah,
that's it. And it's hot six degrees or six times
hotter than the surface of the sun. I saw sixty. Yeah,
I'd say that's in the same range. I mean, that's
six that's not much when you're up that I yeah,
it'll fry an egg for sure. Um, So you you
(08:24):
say that there are some cool fact toys associated with lightning.
I say that lightning as a whole is one cool
factoid made up of smaller component factoids. Yea. And also
I'm sure somebody's can be like you guys used the
word factoid wrong, but we will decimate that person alright. Uh,
(08:44):
do we need to start with with clouds since we've
covered that so thoroughlier. I feel like we do because
with this process of cloud formation it is part and
parcel with lightning formation. They think we should really point
out here, man that it's not just this article, it's
not just how stuff works. That says that scientists aren't
really sure how all this happens. Um NASA says, so
(09:05):
the the um, oh, what's the what's the National Laboratory
begins with the A. Man, well, anyway, one of the
National Laboratory says though that I write about UM. So basically,
we don't fully understand how lightning forms, but it's invisible.
We have some good guesses it occurs within the second
(09:27):
So it's like, it's not the easiest thing in the
world to study. No, it's really not, you know about it.
We can recreate it, which is pretty neat. Okay, so UM.
But yes, let's start with precipitation in the water cycle. Right,
You've got um water say here on the Earth's surface. Um,
when heat is transferred from the environment, remember he always
goes from something that's warm to something that's cold. That's
(09:49):
how heat transfer occurs. Something doesn't lose its cold, it
gains heat, right, that's right. Um. So when that happens,
water can vaporize and rise up into the atmosphere. That's
a VA operation. And once it reaches a certain point,
it's going to lose its heat to the external environment.
It's gonna turn back into water. It's gonna fall back
(10:09):
down to the ground. In the foreign precipitation, that's condensation, right,
So it's either going to get slightly chilly and be rained,
or it's gonna get really chilly and the snow or
freezing rain. Right. So, if you get enough water vapor
going up, and you get enough um condensation starting to
come down and they start knocking into each other. This
is what scientists think. Um, they can start knocking electrons
(10:32):
from one another. The electrons are gonna keep going down,
They're going to um stay say as a cloud forms,
they're gonna they're gonna accumulate around the bottom of the
cloud like a little, a little puffy cloud couch there
that at the bottom of the clouds all tuck the
just settle in and nestle down. And then for for
just for this um example sake, think of positively charged particles,
(10:56):
the ones that are now missing their electrons um are
just lighter, so they're gonna accumulate at the top, but
they're contained in the cloud. Right. So at the top
of the cloud you have all these positively charged particles,
at the bottom you have negatively charged particles electrons, and
all of a sudden you have what's called an electric
field charge separation, which is uh, can do some funky stuff. Well,
(11:18):
that's how batteries work because chuck, as you'll remember, nature
loves homeostasis. Yeah, if it's these things are separate, they
just want to bring them back together exactly. Electrons love
to flow toward the direction of positively charged particles to
neutralize it. And that's an electric charge. It's electricity is
(11:38):
just an electron flow. Okay, So you have a cloud
that's suddenly like a battery, a big honkin battery. Yeah,
and um as this as this uh, this charge separation
becomes more and more charged like that, there's more and
more positive particles, more and more negative particles. It actually,
as these negative particles are the electrons are accumulating at
(12:01):
the bottom of the cloud, they the charge can become
so great that here on the Earth's surface, dude, it
actually presses the electrons down into the earth. Yeah. And
it's hard to imagine this, but it happens when you're
walking around out there during a thunderstorm, like it is
being pushed below your feet, leaving the ground positively charged
and ready to join their little buddies up there in
(12:23):
the clouds. So you have this layer of electrons and
now you have to basically two electric fields that can
either go up within the cloud or it can go
down to the ground. Yeah, that's a common like that
was my first question was if these electrons within the
cloud are separated, why are they going all the way
(12:44):
down to Earth. Why don't they just you know, have
lightning inside the cloud. And the answer is, well, that
happens all the time. That's the most common form of lightning, uh,
is when the electrons form lightning within it's a little
fluffy buddy there with It's like cloud to cloud or
intra cloud lightning. Intra cloud is within the same cloud
between two clouds, but it's it's still falls in the
(13:06):
cloud to cloud category. So I think there's two main division,
cloud to cloud and cloud to ground, and then ground
to cloud is also ground to cloud still, but it's
not because it's going between the ground and cloud or
between a cloud and itself for another cloud. Yeah, I
like a little cloud on cloud action this one. Okay,
(13:26):
So you have this um do you have the Earth
suddenly taking on a positive charge on its surface. You
have a strong negative charge at the bottom of the um,
at the bottom of the cloud, and you have nature
going like what's to do? This is terrible, Like there's
an electrical potential here and it's making me nervous. Like
something has to change. So something does change. There's this
(13:48):
process called the ionization of air, and it's basically turning
air into what's called plasma by ripping it apart essentially. Yeah,
like to call it ionic separation. Up coined that term nice.
I don't know if it's what anyone else in science
calls it, but basically the air around the cloud breaks down, so, uh,
(14:12):
the electric field is really strong. It separates the ions.
Now they can move a lot more freely and can
conduct a lot more electricity. Well, yeah, it takes regular
air like the stuff we're breathing now, and it separates
the electrons from the positive ions. Yeah, but not they're
still within the same area. They're not like completely separate, right,
(14:32):
It's not like it's not like um opening the curtains
with two hands, but it is kind of in a
certain way. With these free electrons, it makes this little
bit of air that that's been ionized much more conductive,
like you said, plasma. Okay, so these things this happens
in little like fifty yard jolts, and they call those
(14:54):
step leaders. Each little each little rip, each little separation
of creation. The plasma creates a channel in the air
that it's very conductive, way more conductive than the surrounding air.
And it happened a little fifty yard branches. Yeah, and
they don't have to go straight down. They're basically looking
they're looking to get to the ground with a path
of least resistance. So if you see this. Discovery had
(15:16):
a show did you see that on YouTube? The what
was it called Raging Planet. Discovery had a show called raging,
and for the first time they filmed a lightning strike
in the super slow mow. So when you see this
like with your naked eye, I mean it all happens
in a blip and you see a lightning strike. But
when you see it slowed down, you see the lightning
(15:38):
working its way down in the little fifty yard bits
and fracturing off to the left and to the right
and basically like disappearing again because it didn't find its
way all the way to the ground. Oh yeah, yeah,
it would just go like so left and then disappear,
and then it'll go down, and then it'll go to
the right and disappear. These channels that that form. Basically
(15:59):
you have a bunch of the step leaders coming down
and whichever reaches the ground first winds. But just because
one reach the ground doesn't mean the other ones automatically disappear.
So that flow of electrons is going to fill up
all of the associated um ion channels UM with this
(16:19):
flow of electrons, right, So um, before that happens, though,
you've got these step leaders coming down from the clouds,
you also have something called um positive leaders, right, it's
positive streamers. I'm sorry. You also have positive streamers coming
up from the ground. So a positive streamer is a
(16:39):
or a step leader is a plasma channel forming in
the direction of the flow of electrons. A positive streamer
is a plasma channel forming in the opposite direction of
the flow of electrons. So it's kind of stretching up.
And it could come from the ground, it could come
from your head, it could come from a tree or
that golf club you're holding. And they've captured these in
(17:01):
photographic form, and it's the same thing. It looks like,
you know, a little purplish bolt of lightning coming up
from the ground trying to join up with its buddy
that's coming down from the sky. Yeah. And like you said,
I it can come from you. The reason your hair
lifts up when you're in like an electrical storm, you
just become a positive streamer, which is not good. It
sounds nice, it does, and you're glowing a little purplish,
(17:22):
but you're in big trouble if it connects with you. Yeah,
And it's the same concept. If you've ever uh shocked
yourself on a door knob, it's the same thing. The
closer you're and once you've built up that energy, the
hand gets closer to the metal, and it leaps out
from your finger and out from the door knob, and
you know you've got lightning. Okay, So I mean we're
drawing this out like I'm about to hyperventilate and I'm
(17:44):
so excited. Finally, at one point you have a step leader,
and like you said, it's taken the path of least resistance, right,
So it's not going to come straight down, largely because
the shape of the cloud is not equal or is
not totally flat. Particles in the air can get in
the way, all kinds of stuff, right, So, um, they're
coming down in little branches that branch off suddenly nowhere.
Eventually one comes down and a step leader connects with
(18:07):
a positive streamer, and all of a sudden, you have
a full uninterrupted path for these electrons to flow, and
boy do they flow. What you have is lightning, right.
You have a sudden current exchange from the cloud down
to the earth and then from the earth back up
to the cloud. Because the lightning stroke isn't just from
(18:29):
the cloud to the ground. It goes down and then
back up immediately and it's on the back up. Yeah,
return stroke, Yes, a return stroke. Thank you. On the
way back up. That's when you see the light literally,
so lightning is we we don't actually see the electron flow.
We see the local effects of the electron flow. And um,
(18:51):
this electron flow produces a tremendous amount of heat energy
Like what did you say? It was like hotter than
the surface of the sun, six times hotter. So that's
that's what you're seeing, right. There is an explosion of heat, right,
and then that heat actually explodes the air around it,
and that produces thunder. Yeah. Um, the way I understood
(19:13):
it was the channel, the ionized plasma channel that's created
when it goes away, the air collapsing back in on
itself is what creates that sound, that sound wave? Is
that right? What I heard was that it's actually exploding
outward and it's compressing the air, basically exploding the air
around it. That converts into a shock wave in the
(19:34):
form of sound that travels outward. That's how I understood it. Well,
maybe it collapses in and explodes out that's very um,
that's very democratic of you. And then one more thing
about thunder, Chuck, get this, there's three segments to the
sound of thunder. Did you know that I thought Pink
Floyd said that was like four. Really, I'm just kidding, okay,
(19:56):
because I remember delicates onund of thunder, but I don't
remember four parts. Okay. So there's the first part um
if I mean think about it. Think about when you've
ever heard thunder. It's like a there's like a few
sounds to it, right, So the first part is actually
um caused by the step leaders. Right, that's a tearing sound.
(20:16):
The second, a cracking sound, is actually caused by the
positive streamers. And then the third part is the explosion
of the air blowing up. But what you're hearing those
first two parts is literally the air ripping open and
they crazy yep. And if you are out in the country,
you might be able to hear that as far away
(20:37):
as fifteen miles. If you're in the city, maybe about
five miles, you'll be able to hear that thunder. And
it is true that you can divide by five and
that is roughly how far away your lightning is from you.
That's counting from the point the lightning strikes till you
hear the thunder. Divide that amount of seconds by five.
(21:00):
Ten seconds, it's two miles away. Is that how does
that rule of thumb work? I mean, don't storms travel faster? Well, no,
I think it has nothing to do with how faster traveling.
It's um the speed of light versus the speed of sound.
Oh yeah, because the speed of light travels at the
speed of light travel. The speed of sound is far
far slower, which is why the sound of thunder lags
the the flash of lightning so much. You just explained
(21:23):
it to yourself. Thank you. Thanks, So, I think it's
time for lightning myth number one. Whoa, that's a good
sound effect. All right, lightning myth number one? Once again,
The tallest objects in a storm don't always get struck
by lightning. Uh. It would make sense that lightning, if
(21:45):
you know, if it's gonna be reaching something that's sticking
up from the ground in the way of a positive streamer,
that the tallest thing will always be that thing. And
that is not the case because you can never really
predict the path of lightning. No, I strike the ground
right next to the tallest thing. It might also, yes,
because the the that path of least resistance, whether it's
(22:07):
dust or or the curvature of the earth or whatever.
That's Yeah, you can't predict where it's gonna go. And
even more than that, once the lightning is struck, it
may jump. Oh yeah, that is a property of lightning,
and may jump to something that has an even even
lesser path of resistance. UM, and that could be you.
So it could strike a tree that you're standing by
(22:29):
and you could be like whoo and then yeah, uh
the way, I guess, way to bust that myth? Thank you. UM.
I think since you brought that up, we might as
well talk about, um, the fact that when you see
lightning and you see it in the clouds and then
down on the ground and then flickering in the clouds afterward,
and remnants branching off, that's like maybe forty or fifty
(22:52):
lightning strikes. You're seeing all at once. It's the whole
idea that lightning doesn't strike the same place twice. Every
time it strikes it twice. It strikes it like like
you said, um, yeah, it's this that that electron flow,
the back and forth between the ground and the earth
in this um which neutralizes the electrical charge. It's not
(23:12):
just one stroke. It's forty or fifty and that's what
you're more likely to see, even unless you just happen
to be looking in the field of view with that
original blast. That's why it's so tough to capture, like
the Discovery Channel gown Raging Planet. Was he like, sits
in the room with this little camera and I would
just let the camera run. I don't know why he
sat there with his finger on the button. It's like, dude,
(23:33):
just press record and walk away. But I guess, well,
I think maybe because it's such a high speed camera.
Plus also hips thematic doesn't have a video function. But
he likened it to fishing. He's it's a little like fishing.
Did he say it like that like a jerk. Yeah,
he was a little bored. Uh, but he got it.
You know, it was all worth it in in the end.
(23:53):
That's what counts, Okay, Josh, I think it's time to
talk about various types of lightning. Yeah, so we talked
about UM ground two or cloud to ground under an
umbrella under which ground to cloud falls UM and this
another way to put it is that's triggered or artificial
(24:15):
and natural. Natural is when it comes down from the
cloud to the ground. UM triggered or artificial is when
some sort of man made structure, say a skyscraper initiates
this lightning, so it's sending up a positive streamer like
hey man, come on, let's do this, and the clouds
like okay, and then it comes down rather than the
cloud pressing down the electrons I think, on the earth
(24:38):
surface and then just hitting a cow, because what's more
natural than lightning striking a cow? That's right. Instant primary
um types of lightning. Normal lightning, which pretty much is
what we've been talking about. Sheet lightning is reflected in
the clouds, and I guess that would paul under intra
and inter cloud lightning. I would think so. Heat lightning
(24:59):
is my favorite because that reminds me of growing up,
going to Florida and swimming at my cousin's house. And
heat lining is basically lightning this so far away you
can't hear the thunder right, and it's hot enough. The
reason they call it heat lightning um is because it's
hot enough that it's being reflected a tremendous distance by
this higher temperature atmosphere. It's a comforting lightning, though it
(25:21):
is in during the summer months. Um Ball lightning, which
we have talked about before, we were entirely certain back
then that it actually existed. But I think since we've
mentioned it that really is it super proven that we've
figured out that it can exist but no one understands it. Yeah,
that's the phenomenon where like you will see a ball
(25:43):
of lightning going through your house. Correct, Yes, I remember
it was like one of the some listener wrote wrote
in about it. Yeah, was it like the um spontaneous combustion.
I don't know that I've ever seen it captured though
on film Ernie thing. Has it been? Yes, it's been recreated,
that's I don't think it's been. Someone hasn't caught the
(26:06):
natural version of it. But yeah, so we've proven it
can exist. Um. But yeah, it'll burn you and then
it'll blow up. It's really dangerous, scary, crazy lightning that
no one gets. Josh, is it time for lightning? Myth
number two? It sounds like it number two. And this
(26:27):
is something I learned today. A search protector will not
save your computer and your television from a lightning strike.
I thought that's what they were for. Apparently they're only
for They can only um save your computer or TV
if it's something that the power company has searched. It's
a searge from your electrical supply. So what you need
(26:51):
is something called a what's it called a lightning arrested
And I've seen that, um, and they're relatively inexpensive, and
it's filled up with a gas that well, I mean
it was like thirty bucks. Oh yeah, that's not bad. Yeah.
I thought you're gonna be like compared to a new Volvo.
Well that's what I thought. A lightning arrestaurant sounded and
(27:11):
it was filled with gas that diffuses the charge. I
thought it'd be like ten bucks. But now even with
gas prices today, that's right. Um. So we talked about
types of lightning. We should probably talk about lightning rods
at some point, like maybe now, So do you know
Ben Franklin actually invented these things? And I went and
double checked, like I was like, this sounds like four
(27:34):
year old textbook stuff. Yeah, but it's true, wouldn't it.
And I also remembered, oh, wait, like his kite experiment
he ripped off a couple of frenchmen. I went and
checked that out, and no, actually he Franklin had conducted
some sort of experiments and possibly proposed a kite experiment
and these frenchmen. He published his results in the early
(27:54):
seventeen fifties and a couple of frenchmen, um like, carried
him out. So the Frenchman actually did did do this,
um But Ben Franklin did develop lightning rods as early
as like the seventeen forties, I believe. But he did
have a kite key experiment, right he did. Okay, I
don't know if he it's not certain that he actually
(28:14):
carried out the gutch the key on the kite experiment
or just said, you know, this theoretically could work. It's
a thought experiment. Don't be so stupid to go do this. Well,
let's call that lightning my number three okay, and here's
some retroactive lightning for that one in thunder. WHOA all right?
But he did develop the lightning rod. And basically a
(28:37):
lightning rod is a metal rod on the roof of
the building that is attached to a metal wire that
runs into the ground and it's it's job is to
either divert that direct lightning strike into the ground and
diffuse it quickly, or if it's jumping around, to collect
that and diffuse it so it doesn't cause like super
(28:58):
lots of damage to the cry for building. Right, but
it doesn't attract lightning. It says, hey, lightning, I got
a positive streamer and I'm not gonna resist you at all.
Just take me and um, the lightning will be like, hey,
you look pretty good, and um, there you go. But
it doesn't attract lightning. And I know the article says
that's nitpicking, but it's really not. There's not a different
(29:21):
thing offering a good path of least resistance lightning and
attracting it. Yeah, because the whoever wrote this article, who
was this, Yeah, I don't, I'd never I didn't recognize
the name. I think it's an old article basically said
the lightning is gonna be happening anyway, so it's not
like it's going to cause lightning to strike there. So
that made that made a lot of sense. They also
made a pretty good point that, um, because lightning rods
(29:45):
conduct electricity so well, that makes them they're not going
to be singed or burned or whatever it's when you
resist that, lightning burns you. Right. So like if lightning
strikes the like the wood of a house, Um, then
the woods not a very good conductor, which means it's
going to be a high amount of burning heat damage
(30:06):
because of resistance produces this heat energy. That makes sense. Yeah, Um,
what else do we have? Do we have another lightning myth? Man,
they're just coming hard and fast these days. We saved
them all, right, Lightning myth number four, the Faraday cage. Right, So, um,
(30:28):
you are in a car and it's a lightning storm.
You've actually saw shelter in a car. Good move. And
most people think that's because the tires on the car
are touching the ground and they're rubber and they're a
good insulator. Not true. In a lightning storm, rubber actually
becomes pretty conductive when especially when it's struck by lightning.
(30:50):
But if your car struck by lightning, you should be
fairly protected because of this thing called the Faraday cage,
named after Michael Faraday, the early electrical genius, but I
think the eighteenth century. Yeah, I think he's the one
that first described what an electrical field is period. Yeah,
he was just a very smart guy. The fact that
he didn't die of electrocution is really something that means
(31:11):
he's super smart. But he realized that if you if
you put something in a metal cage and apply an
electrical charge current to the cage. What's inside the cage
will be fine because electricity passes that along the outside
of the metal cage, the Faraday cage. Well engineers incorporate
that into automobile design. So it's a pretty good place
to seek shelter. You don't want to be laying naked
(31:31):
on the hood of your car, no, but being inside
your car would be would be a pretty good place
to be. Uh. Yeah, Just it has nothing to do
with your tires stuff. Don't be a dummy. And I
guess that's our first tip if we're going to give
some lightning tips. If you are out out and about
and if you're driving around Kansas. I don't know why,
I God forbid you would be doing anything like that,
(31:53):
But stay in your car or get in your car. Yeah,
if you don't have a car. Don't go under a tree.
Don't go climb the flagpole. Right. Uh. They say to
put your feet close together and crouch down to the ground. Yes,
but keep your head as low to the ground as
you can get it without touching the ground. Do not
(32:15):
don't let anything but the bottom of your shoes touch
the ground because when lightning strikes, it sends an electrical
current across the ground as well. Right, So if your
head happens to be touching all of a sudden, you
just had a struck or some sort of neurological damage
because you just got struck by lightning. Drest at the
very least. Yeah. Um. But and also if you are
(32:36):
crouched down, you're providing less of a chance to create
a positive streamer with your body. So you want to
find shelter. And if you can't find shelter, you want
to crouch down, keep your head low and but not
touching the ground. And also there's a study in Japan,
Chuck that found that, Um, once you hear thunder, there
(32:58):
is no safe interval where you're not vulnerable to a
direct lightning strike. By the time you hear thunder, it's
already there. It's already too late. You could be struck
by lightning in any second. So there's no warning sound. Then, no,
And you also want to get out of pools because
they are really good at conducting electricity. Yeah, don't stand
(33:19):
around in water. No, it's not a good idea. Um,
stay off the telephone. If you still have a telephone
that's plugged into a cord on a wall. If you
buy things that have the s C N on TV label.
Stay off the phone means you're also in Kansas too, interestingly, Um,
and they say, you know, stay out of the bathtub
(33:40):
a because it's got water. But one of the other
reasons if you're in an older house, um, you're plumbing
pipes are gonna be uh pretty good conductors and attractors
of that electricity. But the newer house probably PBC right exactly,
So if you didn't skimp when you redid your house,
you might have paid for copper. Yeah, it's true. You
(34:01):
you really want to remember or we should just be like,
let's just not take a bath for a shower while
there's a lightning storm. Um. And then I guess is
that it for the lightning myths too? Um? I think
so I have uh no more little factoids on my
sheet either, I've got one. All right, let's hear it.
(34:22):
Carol Apathy caro onopathy. It's the study of lightnings effects
on the human body, the study of the pathology of
light I was mentioned in there. Okay, isn't that cool though,
like talk about a specialized field like not not the
effects of electricity on the human body and the effects
(34:42):
of lightning striking the human body. Did they study people
like Sullivan? I imagine he was he saw a karenopathist
or two. I bet you, like he had to have
become more susceptible, right, Like, is that possible? I don't know.
I think could be a lightning myth that we might
not dispel at this time. I mean, I would think
(35:04):
of the guy got I mean, granted, he's a park ranger,
so he's out there at least that you mentioned his
stetson having a burn. So despite the fact that like lightning,
UM is six times hotter than the sun, produces heat
six times hotter than the sun, heats the air to
like eighteen thou degrees, causing it to explode, it can
still hit a human and the only burn wounds typically
(35:25):
are at the point of entry in the point of exit.
How does it not kill people all the time? I
don't know that one thing that they say is possible UM.
The one possible explanation is that it happens so fast
that it doesn't have the same amount of time that
a UM like an industrial electrocution has. Interesting and remember
(35:48):
the hysterical strength thing. Do you want to tell him
why people are thrown with electricity. Uh what was it?
Oh yeah, that's right. It's it's not the actual blast,
it's the surge of adrenaline is so great that you
have this superhuman strength and sort of leap back from it,
and your muscles can track so hard and so fast
that you throw yourself. Yeah, that's crazy. With lightning, I
(36:08):
don't think that's true. I think the shock wave can
actually throw you. You know my grandfather, Uh that eventually
led to his death. He was electrician. Oh yeah, I
think I might have told the story. He was at
the top of a thing and used to test electricity
with the back of your hand so it doesn't latch on,
and it popped him out. He hit a live war
and it knocked him out of a telephone pole and
(36:29):
he laid on his head. Oh man, and it was
like bedridden for the rest of his life. And oh man, yeah,
are you serious? I did not know that. Yeah, wow,
that was Granddaddy Bryant. I was a little kid. I
mean he died when I was like six, So all
I ever knew of him was he was kind of
this big scary guy in hospital bed who gave you candy.
(36:51):
Candy and like Buffalo Nichols. Well, okay, that was a
bummer way to end this one. Yeah. Um, let's see
you got any other terrible stories now, okay, well, then
let's go to listener mail. Oh wait, at first I
didn't even say how stuff works? What is wrong with me?
Do you want to see some very pretty lightning pictures? Um,
(37:12):
and read more about lightning? You can just type that in.
This is like a seminal article for how stuff works.
It's like bread and butter stuff lightning search bar how
stuff works dot com. Now it's time for listener mail,
josh Im. We call this uh email I just received,
you know, ten minutes ago. Oh okay, hot off the presses.
(37:34):
Guys and Jerry have been wanting to write for ages,
and now I actually have things to say. I've been
listening to the podcast for years, and I probably listen
to them and never listened to the few in the
beginning before you two teamed up. Now that's pretty nice. Um,
I learned so much from them. Your podcast is the
reason I survived mowing lawns for a summer without my
brain becoming much from the endless walking back and forth.
(37:57):
What I really want to write and say, though, is,
thanks for helping me get into my college. My main
essay for applying to colleges was about your podcast. I
entitled it Healthcare to zoot Suits, and I talked all
about the things I've learned from your podcast, hoping it
would show the college is um that I was curious,
well rounded, and had a thirst for knowledge. Apparently worked,
(38:18):
because I was accepted to several colleges. I will be
a freshman at st Olaf College next year next fall.
I don't know if they had a team, saying Olaf,
they're like the fighting roses from Golden Girls. Really, that's
where rose from Golden Girls from st Olaf? Really? Yeah,
I didn't watch Golden Girls. What had I don't know
(38:39):
it didn't It's not too late so on lifetime every days.
Far than all right? So Aaron M. From Green Bay, Wisconsin. Uh,
congratulations for getting into st Olaf College. Jesus, thanks for
the inspiration and good luck in college is gonna be great.
It only gets better from from there. In my opinion,
life A agree, but then it starts to go down.
(39:03):
But that'll be a while. But I thought that was
like fifty when that happened. Uh yeah, well we'll see. Okay,
so congratulations Aaron. Um, if you are someone who has
used us to further your own agenda, say like getting
into college or getting a date or whatever, we want
to hear that kind of story. UM. You can tweet
(39:24):
to us at s Y s K podcast. You can
join us on Facebook dot com slash stuff you Should Know,
and you can send us an email to Stuff Podcast
at Discovery dot com for more on this and thousands
of other topics. Is it how stuff works dot com
(39:52):
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