Gothamist: Far From Perfect Storm

Jenna

Fri, 28 Jan 2005 01:44:22 -0500

im not sure if anyone still reads these....but some of you guys are clueless. the girl that was killed was my sister....and it wouldnt matter about the electricity because the car was filling up with water. plus if you are surrounded by water in the middle of a huge storm.......you are bound to panic. my sister was not responsible for what happened to her

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Fri, 01 Oct 2004 19:35:51 -0500

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FDL

Thu, 12 Aug 2004 14:12:50 -0500

I mean SP.

FDL

Thu, 12 Aug 2004 14:10:36 -0500

SB - If you're question was about word definition, lightning strike survivors were not technically electrocuted (shocked, maybe?). To electrocute is to "kill by electric shock", according to Webster's.

quickness

Thu, 12 Aug 2004 12:30:33 -0500

oh poo, we weren't talking about lightning were we...? hahaahah

quickness

Thu, 12 Aug 2004 12:25:11 -0500

Yeah, what some others had said. The car acts as a Faraday cage, essentially shielding the contents from the electrical charge that flows on the outside. Same with what happens with airplanes. The rubber tires do not do much when it comes to lightning. If an electrical charge can travel through miles and miles of air, it can very well reach that last few inches to the ground.

larry dvm

Thu, 12 Aug 2004 12:09:33 -0500

Nosuch and Bee, I don't have the definitive information (how does this Internet thingy work?) but I think a car actually does ground the electricity, conducting it along its body to the earth. Because the people inside aren't touching the ground, the bolt doesn't bother with them (for the same reasons scott detailed about salt water). So, it's not the tires' insulation (they're pretty thin and laced with metal wires anyway), nor a "force field," but you are pretty safe in a car. Also, a note on lightning strike survivors, I seem to remember that most survive because they are not touching the ground when struck--for example, they might be taking a quick hop-step up onto the curb, or jumping to safety.

SP

Thu, 12 Aug 2004 11:58:35 -0500

what about people who are hit by lightning and survive? were they not electrocuted? not trying to start a flame war, just curious about the semantics.

scott

Thu, 12 Aug 2004 11:17:45 -0500

Regular water is actually an extremely poor conductor of electricity - that is to say its doesn't conduct electricity at all. When electricity hits water, it doesn't flow through in the form of a current but instead seeks out any object that will allow it to flow, any conductor such as a car or a person. Electricity hates water, which is why it is to get to you. Salt water, on the other hand, is an excellent conductor of electricity. The Chlorine and Sodium that make up salt are separated and form ions, which allow electrons to transfer from ion to ion, forming regular isotopes and thus eliminating any electricity that would otherwise cause you harm. Think about it like this, how come lightning can strike the ocean but doesn't kill millions of fish at that spot? Salt water. For the sake of argument, the human body is basically a big bag of salt water inside with skin as a relatively poor barrier. Electricity likes salt water. Hope this explanation helps. My degree is not in chemistry, although I did study engineering and took a lot of chemistry classes. Please feel free to correct me.

FDL

Thu, 12 Aug 2004 11:09:09 -0500

Sorry, another pedant here. "fatally electrocuted" is redundant. If you're electrocuted, by definition, you're dead.

Bee-Bau

Thu, 12 Aug 2004 09:12:25 -0500

I thought the real reason a car wasn't so much the tires, but instead it is because electricity travels easily around the metal shell of the car, forming a sort of force-field around you...

Mr. Nosuch

Thu, 12 Aug 2004 09:07:34 -0500

My bad on the URL above. For the extra curious: http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Ground_(electricity)

Mr. Nosuch

Thu, 12 Aug 2004 09:04:41 -0500

Putting on my best nit picking hat, the rubber tires of a car insulate electricity. When you ground electricity, you give it a way to flow to earth, completing a circuit. The tires of a car prevent the electricity from flowing into a car from a conductor (such as water outside the car.)