Neural Gourmet Archives | Feed Your Brain
Neural Gourmet Archives | Feed Your BrainI read this morning on the BBC webpage that based on ONE incident where a young woman was hit by lightning while yakking on her cellie that British doctors are warning against even CARRYING the damn things outside during a storm.
But that wad of keys in your pocket and that I-Pod in the other and that DSP in your left hand is Just Jake, I suppose?
The phone is not grounded. How it can attract lightning any more than the top of your head escapes me. But then, my ticket is punched in electrical engineering, not Homeopathic "Medicine" like those UK doctors.
Maybe if they take the remains of the cell phone, put it in a bottle of water, then pour everything out and rinse the bottle 10X, they could sell it as a Homeopathic lightning repellent ? "Like Cures Like", after all....
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The small radio signal it emits in standby mode every few seconds could act as an attractor for lightning?
Nah, that just doesn't seem likely. Besides, the article is saying that the metal directs the current into your body. Umm... Is there really that much metal in a cell phone? It'd seem to me that by weight they're mostly plastic and silicon. As Wheelman pointed out, there's a lot more metal in your carkeys. And that line about the metal directing the current into your body... Yeah, metal will do that, if the metal is what's struck by the lightning, but if that's the case you're going to have the contact burns to worry about too.
Paul Taylor, a scientist at the Met Office said it could also be dangerous to carry a mobile in your pocket during a storm.
"It is well known within the thunderstorm detection community that wearing or carrying metallic objects can increase the likelihood of injury.
"It certainly adds to the intensity of the skin damage and the article certainly amplifies that here.
"I would treat a mobile phone as yet another piece of metal that people tend to carry on their persons like coins and rings"
Are we perhaps worrying about the wrong things? Chances of being hit by lightning -- 1/10000 (or so I've heard). Chance of global warming being true -- significantly higher I'd say.
That, or they really have too damn much time on their hands over there. The girl gets struck by lightning, and instead of thanking their good fortune that she isn't now piloting a pine box through Eternity, they're warning everyone about the possibility of burns.
If I were to be struck by lightning, I'd be thankful if I were still around to be worrying about my injuries.
Unless something happened to The Lads, then I'd be wondering about the cruelty of Random Chance.
And didja know lightning can "Reach out and Touch" you from TEN MILES AWAY ?!?!?!?
wowsers.
Round and Round it Goes...
For instance that quote in my previous post, "It is well known within the thunderstorm detection community that wearing or carrying metallic objects can increase the likelihood of injury."
Yeah, that's certainly true. And riding around with sharp pointy objects when you're driving can certainly increase the risk of injury in a car crash. D'oh!
