Apr 22, 2008 11:14 pm US/Central
Good Question: Your Lightning Questions Answered
(WCCO)
It's a springtime classic: Warm weather, heavy downpours and explosive lightning.
According to the National Weather Service, the odds of being hit by lightning in your lifetime are 1 in 5,000. The odds of being hit in any given year are 1 in 400,000. That compares to the odds of winning the Powerball lottery, which are 1 in 146 million.
"It's like an unguided missile," said Dr. Jim Kakalios, a University of Minnesota Physics professor, and author of the book "The Science of Superheroes." Many superheroes got their powers after being hit by a bolt of lightning.
"Lightning is looking for the path of least resistance. So it wants the shortest distance and the easiest thing to travel through. You don't want to be between the electrons in the clouds and the ground is the bottom line," explained Kakalios.
Tall things are the real attraction for lightning, like the Empire State Building in New York City which gets hit, on average, 25 times a year. The National Weather Service said that "height, pointy shape and isolation are the dominant factors controlling where a lightning bolt will strike."
That's why holding an umbrella is dangerous.
Jay Dudding from Bloomington e-mailed, "Is there a way to prevent our homes from being struck by lighting? Do lighting rods really work?"
"Yes they do," said Kakalios. "They work because they can short out the lightning, sending it to the ground and missing the roof. It goes through the metal of the rod, to the ground and misses the house."
Sarah Goodhart e-mailed asking, "Is it really dangerous to talk on the phone during a lightning storm?"
If it's a land-line phone it could be dangerous, according to Kakalios.
"You're holding on to something that's connected to metal, that's connected to ground," he said. However, there's no risk to being on a cordless or a cellular phone.
Chris Blake e-mailed in his Good Question, "I've been told by my older brother that lightning has nitrogen in it and when a thunderstorm passes through the grass is greener because of said nitrogen. Is there any truth to that or is my brother trying to make me look like an idiot?"
So does lightning make the grass turn green? That's a tough one to answer.
Scientists have documented the release of nitrogen in the atmosphere due to the electrical discharge of lightning. However, they have not been able to document whether the amount of nitrogen is sufficient to cause fertilization of grass.
Rubber soled shoes and rubber tires on a car are not enough to protect you from a lightning strike, according to Kakalios.
"If it can travel through air it's gonna go through the rubber," he said.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
Reporting
