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Lightning Strike Kills Colo. Motorcyclist
AP ^ | 6/22/06

Posted on 06/22/2006 11:32:56 AM PDT by Mr. Brightside

Today: June 22, 2006 at 9:56:7 PDT

Lightning Strike Kills Colo. Motorcyclist

ASSOCIATED PRESS

WESTMINSTER, Colo. (AP) - A motorcyclist died after he was struck by lightning while riding in rush hour traffic between Denver and Boulder, police said.

Witnesses reported seeing a flash of light shortly before the motorcyclist struck the center divider on U.S. 36 Wednesday, police spokesman Tim Read said.

Gary Missi, 46, of Longmont was pronounced dead at the scene.

A coroner's investigation was under way to determine whether the lightning bolt, the collision or something else caused his death, Read said.

The lightning blasted a 4-inch-deep hole in the highway and sent chunks of asphalt hurtling across the highway.

--


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: hooligan; hooligans; hooligansmc; ibtz; mc; motorcycle; motorcycling; motorcyclist; ratfarts; rubbersidedown; shinysideup; theallmightyzot; zot
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To: martin_fierro

Shocking.


101 posted on 06/23/2006 7:56:10 AM PDT by BlueOneGolf (I Ride and I Vote. Join me in the American Motorcyclist Association today)
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To: Mr. Brightside

I knew motorcycles were dangerous!


102 posted on 06/23/2006 7:56:51 AM PDT by ArcadeQuarters
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To: AnAmericanMother

It's not exactly a Faraday cage. It's called the skin effect. Faraday is for stationary charge, skin effect is for an actual current, that is, flowing charge. Some good links there.

See my post #78, correcting my own confusion of the two.


103 posted on 06/23/2006 9:14:16 AM PDT by Right Wing Assault ("..this administration is planning a 'Right Wing Assault' on values and ideals.." - John Kerry)
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To: OmahaFields
You do know that lightning rods attract electrical charges

Of course I do. But logic doesn't matter to the nanny statist.

104 posted on 06/23/2006 9:24:23 AM PDT by beltfed308 (Nanny Stater's are Ameba's.)
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To: OmahaFields

The latest research shows that blunt lightning rods work better than sharp ones. In one test, twelve of the blunt rods were struck and none of the nearby sharp ones were.

(Also, people used to think that lightning rods allowed a slow leakage of charge and therefore actually prevented strikes. This has been shown to be incorrect. A thumbtack on the top of the sphere of an electrostatic generator will leak enough charge to strongly reduce the length of sparks.)


105 posted on 06/23/2006 9:37:45 AM PDT by Right Wing Assault ("..this administration is planning a 'Right Wing Assault' on values and ideals.." - John Kerry)
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To: AnAmericanMother

Generally when a car is hit only a rather small bolt is involved. That's, because in the case of a car, their are other features around that take up charge and could be hit. It could be other cars in the area. The car in the pic had it's winshield blown out, because the wiper had the highest value for the electric field on the car. The wiper couldn't carry the current, so the current took the path of arcs though the window at the 2 ends of the wiper. That's the reason the biker has hit, rather than the other cars in the local area. The bike had more than a few "points" on it where a high field existed.


106 posted on 06/23/2006 10:05:44 AM PDT by spunkets
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To: Right Wing Assault

Wow, we need to tell the guys at the Richmond Science Museum . . . < g >


107 posted on 06/23/2006 10:14:25 AM PDT by AnAmericanMother ((Ministrix of Ye Chase, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment)))
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To: spunkets
Our car had a roll bar (which was hit, we believe) and the old-fashioned metal-framed windows (it was a '62 Studebaker, and it was never the same afterwards!)

(. . . the roll bar was installed by my dad, because he didn't trust our teenaged driving abilities. As I told him, hey, I was hit by lightning and didn't freak and run right off the road, what more do you want?)

108 posted on 06/23/2006 10:18:47 AM PDT by AnAmericanMother ((Ministrix of Ye Chase, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment)))
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To: Right Wing Assault
"Current recommendations are that you NOT lie flat on the ground."

That depends. Their suggestion is that one assume the shape of a ball on the ground. The reason to lie flat is that one has the clue of an immanent strike. That is, before the strike the person senses the charge accumulating on him. There's a distinct tingling sensation and the hairs stand up. Taking a ball position won't help. The buildup will continue and the strike will hit you anyway. Laying flat reduces the electric field intensity on the person to that of the local ground. There's no I*R drop there. That sharply reduces the probability of being struck.

In the case of the condition in the articles posted, the key feature is voltage drop(I*R) in the ground some point away from the object collecting the charge that's developing the high field. If one was really sweaty, with a lot of salt on them, laying on the ground would provide an alternate high conductivity path for the current on it's way to the dischage point(which was never the person). It was a nearby tree, or metal building for instance. The key points would be ground conductivity and the magnitude of the impending strike.

"The latest research shows that blunt lightning rods work better than sharp ones. In one test, twelve of the blunt rods were struck and none of the nearby sharp ones were. "

Pointed rods are always better. The field intensity at a point provides for field emission of electrons that reduce the local field and dissipate the charge. Either electrons are emitted, or a plasma forms and they're collected. That reduces the intensity of the impending strike. It might even prevent it. Field emission at blunt tips effectively doesn't happen and they just get hit.

109 posted on 06/23/2006 10:37:47 AM PDT by spunkets
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To: AnAmericanMother
Wow, we need to tell the guys at the Richmond Science Museum

Yes, even science museums are slow to pick up on new findings.

110 posted on 06/23/2006 11:20:01 AM PDT by Right Wing Assault ("..this administration is planning a 'Right Wing Assault' on values and ideals.." - John Kerry)
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To: Right Wing Assault
We bullyragged the poor guy who was running the VanDeGraaf generator with a million questions. Guess some of his answers were a little off the mark.

My hubby is a radio amateur (actually, I am too, but he's the serious DXer - Honor Roll and all) and I was an arson investigator years ago (I had to be able to tell the lightning from the arson!) so we have more than an academic interest in this stuff . . .

111 posted on 06/23/2006 11:51:58 AM PDT by AnAmericanMother ((Ministrix of Ye Chase, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment)))
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To: spunkets

Here's the research on the blunt rods from the Journal of Applied Meteorology: Vol. 39, No. 5, pp. 593–609.:

http://ams.allenpress.com/amsonline/?request=get-document&doi=10.1175%2F1520-0450(2000)039%3C0593:LRIS%3E2.0.CO%3B2

For those who want a shorter version, just read the first part of the above paper or try this:

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/resources/basics/2000-05-15-lightn-rod-tests.htm

Alone on the top of a rise, I would probably lie flat if I get signals from the electric field. In an open flat field I'm going to crouch. There are a number of stories online where baseball, football, and soccer teams are on a field and the lightning hits one of them or the ground rather than one of them and several are killed by the ground streamer. The crouch would have saved them.



112 posted on 06/23/2006 11:54:06 AM PDT by Right Wing Assault ("..this administration is planning a 'Right Wing Assault' on values and ideals.." - John Kerry)
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To: OmahaFields

ALL of you experts on this thread stating sources and providing cites and graphs invariably depend on at least two extra factors: time and current path. As I said the statement as originally made is not universally true and I don't buy it; there are other factors involved. The original statement of 10s of mAs is equivalent to saying " 100 miles PER is extremely dangerous and will kill you." I'll leave the equivocation to you experts....


113 posted on 06/23/2006 1:06:12 PM PDT by Gaffer
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To: Right Wing Assault

Just go back and look at your reply and count all of the conditions required for your reply to refute what I originally said. Time and current path among the two chief factors, others are voltage, type of voltage, a myriad of factors. Blanket statements like 10s of mAs can/will kill are just like saying 100 Miles/Per (no time factor) is dangerous.....


114 posted on 06/23/2006 1:08:56 PM PDT by Gaffer
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To: Gaffer
10s of mAs can/will kill are just like saying 100 Miles/Per (no time factor) is dangerous.

Are you saying that current times time gives charge and charge alone isn't what kills? If so, I agree.

But, if we assume that a given current is through the average human heart, this current produces chemical changes in the heart and these are what cause the fibrillation or paralysis that eventually leads to death. We can't look at this as we would a piece of wire. There are several factors, but, since most hearts are biologically pretty similar, the results should be roughly the same.

If we pass a certain current for a short time, the chemical changes made are small and reversible. If we increase the time, the changes become larger and less reversible. Beyond a certain time, the changes interrupt the function of the chemical system of the heart. It starts to fibrillate.

Similar to putting a finger on a hot stove. Short time, minimal damage. Long time, tissue is destroyed.

There will be heating, too, which will also cause chemical changes. The heat energy released per second is power. Electrical heating is determined by power = i^2 times R. So, if we know the tissue resistance and the current, we can determine the joules of heat energy per second dumped into the tissue.

Am I hitting what you are looking for yet?

115 posted on 06/23/2006 3:45:37 PM PDT by Right Wing Assault ("..this administration is planning a 'Right Wing Assault' on values and ideals.." - John Kerry)
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To: Right Wing Assault
The latest research shows that blunt lightning rods work better than sharp ones. In one test, twelve of the blunt rods were struck and none of the nearby sharp ones were.

Basic theory which was proven by Ben Franklin.

(Also, people used to think that lightning rods allowed a slow leakage of charge and therefore actually prevented strikes. This has been shown to be incorrect. A thumbtack on the top of the sphere of an electrostatic generator will leak enough charge to strongly reduce the length of sparks.)

I would be interested in seeing the where that has been shown to be incorrect.

116 posted on 06/23/2006 3:48:08 PM PDT by OmahaFields
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To: spunkets
Field emission at blunt tips effectively doesn't happen and they just get hit.

Your theory is correct but many lightning protection systems are designed to be hit.

117 posted on 06/23/2006 3:50:31 PM PDT by OmahaFields
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To: Gaffer
ALL of you experts on this thread stating sources and providing cites and graphs invariably depend on at least two extra factors: time and current path.

I think those factors were also addressed.

118 posted on 06/23/2006 3:53:29 PM PDT by OmahaFields
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To: Right Wing Assault

One of my Mom's old weather lore maxim's.

When the cow's lay down it's going to rain.

Maybe it's mass suicide.


119 posted on 06/23/2006 3:57:47 PM PDT by TASMANIANRED (The Internet is the samizdat of liberty..)
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To: OmahaFields
Article I quoted said:

The latest research shows that blunt lightning rods work better than sharp ones.

You said:

Basic theory which was proven by Ben Franklin.

Hmmm.

http://www.physicstoday.org/vol-59/iss-1/p42.html

In his first letter, Franklin described "the wonderful Effect of Points, both in drawing off and throwing off the Electrical Fire." He showed that points work quickly at "a considerable Distance," that sharp points work better than blunt ones, that metal points work better than dry wood, and that the pointed object should be touched—that is, grounded—to obtain the maximum draw effect.

I'm just reporting research. Maybe Franklin was wrong. Maybe they are wrong. Time will tell. As for your second part, I can't reply now. Have to go see 91-year-old father-in-law.

120 posted on 06/23/2006 3:59:03 PM PDT by Right Wing Assault ("..this administration is planning a 'Right Wing Assault' on values and ideals.." - John Kerry)
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