Cool Picture
Let's see if it publishes properly:
- This shot shows a lightning bolt striking an airplane taking off at Osaka's airport, then hitting the ground.
- Now, can anyone explain to this ignorant (me) person how 100 trillion (million million) watts can hit a plane and nothing happens to the electronics inside, while my cell can wreak havoc emitting just a few microwaves?
We were wondering the same thing. Cool picture though. Click over to Gizmodo - they have a video .gif we couldn't embed.
Labels: we got nothing
posted by SCC at 12:01 AM
25 Comments:
i saw another photo of a strike on an antenna atop the sears tower.
they must have some really serious surge protectors.
Plane in air no ground, its like just having a few more feet of extension cord. It passes right through it without them even knowing, wired but true.
THAT A PIC OF 050 TESTING A TASER OUT.
Looks like a Tesla experiment.
The lightning produces a transient field that has no high frequency components to cause ionization of living tissue. Furthermore the metallic shell of the airplane acts as an insulator and prevents much of the electric current from leaking into the cabin.
The cell phones we use, generate waves that oscillate at least 700 million times more than whatever wave is caused by lightning.
Now, let me give you a street analogy. You get tased at "stunt" one time. It sucks but you survive it fine, right?
Then you get tased by 700 million taser's, at stunt, all at the same time. Do you think you have any chance?
That's the difference between the lightning and the cell phone.
Having said the above, to illustrate the difference between a transient field (lightning) and a cell phone (microwave field), I should also mention that I am not convinced that cell phones are that harmful.
Surely they can be a distraction while driving but I am not convinced that their waves cause tissue damage.
This country has been flooded in electromagnetic radiation more and longer than any other country in the world: radios, cell phones, microwave towers, tv stations... you name it, we've been swimming in radio waves for well over half a century.
If radio waves caused harm, we would have witnessed some serious epidemiological disasters by now.
Still, though, I use a hands free. Not so much out of fear for Officer Ramon Solidum but because if there is a long term cumulative effect on my health, I'd rather mitigate the risk. :)
The real reason they won't let you use a cell phone on a plane...... because the rest of us don't want to have to listen to your ramblings about how much you hate traveling or about your love live or whatever worthless drivel you would talk about.
Nobody is that important that they can't wait to call till the flight is over. We don't need 50 or 100 people all talking on the phone at the same time. Have some consideration for others.
Lightning Strikes Sears Tower...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJGE51oBAms
On a side note, any smart guy want to explain to me how lightning can strike the ocean and everything in it not die?
SCC, THE SECOND POSTER AT 4:58PM IS CORRECT. THE PLANE ISN'T GROUNDED.
The very large voltage produces a "skin effect". It's like lighting hitting your car. The tires don't save you because the juice still grounds out. The juice rides on the outside. This is why some people survive lighting strikes.
hits tower...
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=27a_1187998916
Like when your car gets hit as long as you don't touch metal the tires ground the car and you should be ok! But there is always an exception! Like if it strikes daleys car then he will fry! Oops sorry mean if Patrick Fitzgerald, strikes he will fry!
9/02/2007 04:58:00 AM
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Is this poster correct? I also figured that it was because the circuit was not grounded, but does that mean that if a person was skydiving and got hit by lightening, that he would not be harmed? Or is there something in the airplane which makes the volts pass right through?
Now, can anyone explain to this ignorant (me) person how 100 trillion (million million) watts can hit a plane and nothing happens to the electronics inside, while my cell can wreak havoc emitting just a few microwaves?
Some theories:
(1) Electrical charges tend to travel along the outer surfaces of objects, so the current from the lightning strike stays on the outside skin of the airplane. Your cell phone signal starts on the inside.
(2) The energy of the radio signals emitted by the lightning currents are scattered across the radio frequency spectrum, but your cell phone is focusing all its energy at one exact frequency. On that frequency, it may emit more radio energy than the lightning strike. If some part of the plane's avionics just happens to be using that exact same frequency...
(3) If lightning strikes the plane and kills some piece of electronics, it's obvious what happened and why. The effects of your cell phone might be much more subtle and hard to track down. They may even go unnoticed until it's too late.
(4) The lightning strike probably does interfere with the plane's avionics. Aviation engineers hate it, but they can't do anything about it. You, however, will shut off your cell phone if asked.
(5) Planes have been getting hit by lightning for almost a century. They're designed to take it. When cells phone first came out, their effects on aircraft electonics were something new and unknown. No one had ever tested what would happen if someone held a small transmitter within a few inches of some important electrical circuits. Better to be safe until they learn more.
(6) We've learned more, and digital cell phones are smaller and less powerful than the old ones. No modern airplane will be harmed by a modern cell phone.
(7) Your cell phone signal is absorbed or deflected by the buildings and terrain around you, so someone less than a mile away might be using the same frequency as you, and neither of you will have a problem with it. But if you use your cell phone in a plane two miles up in the air, its signal could blanket 500 square miles. Your phone would occupy that frequency on every cell tower
in range, and nobody else could use it. A few hundred people on their cell phones in a holding pattern over Chicago could cripple cellular service throughout the city.
The plane was fitted with a caps poster and all head rests had a cease fire cover on it .
Thats why nothing can hurt the plane! WOW
lightning has many watts, but no amps which kill you
nice photo wheres sgt hitney
SImple. Planes are designed to WITHSTAND direct hits from lightning. It occurs more common than you think, and if they weren't designed that way, there would be a heck of a lot less air travel.
Static disipators, they are attatched to the rear of the wings and look kind of like frayed wires.Lightning can do damage to the airframe but it's rare.
Actually the FAA said it is safe to use cell phones on planes, but they don't want to let us do it because it culd be disruptive, can you imagint trying to talk on your cell or sleep on the plane when 300 people are yelling into their cell phones during the flight?
lightning has many watts, but no amps which kill you
9/02/2007 01:31:00 PM
Who the hell told you that?
It is secret but actually airplanes have a long, long wire that keeps them attached to the ground for just this sort of emergency. Thus they are grounded at all times! Honest !!!
There's a little creepy man that looks like a gargoyle that rides on the wings of every airplane that takes the jolt.
Every once in a while a passenger witnesses this guy and freaks out and then gets kicked off the plane from pissed off flight crew.
Something like the Alfred Hitchock movie. BELIEVE IT OR NOT!
Anonymous said...
The lightning produces a transient field that has no high frequency components to cause ionization of living tissue. Furthermore the metallic shell of the airplane acts as an insulator and prevents much of the electric current from leaking into the cabin.
...And the internet is a series of tubes.
The metal skin of the airplane acts as a conductor and the lightning follows the path of least resistance, i.e. through the conductive skin.
Geez...
You guys are all wrong! Go buy yourselves the ARRL Technician study book, go to QRZ, E-Ham, and you'll find your answers!
Woever it was that said using cell phones while in midair on a flight would cripple cell service, and the other who said the signal would blanket 500 miles is wrong!
The signal on a cell phone is anywhere bewteen 800MHZ and 1.2GHZ in frequency, and cell phones use spread spectrum technology for your privacy and convenience without enough RF to cause any crippling effect on service, or enough RF to carry 500 miles and jamming up the towers.
Cell phones are simply not allowed for use on flights because the RF that is emitted interferes with flight navigation equipment. Recent studies do show however that exposure to RF energy at a high enough duty cycle rating in watts will cause your skin to heat, and may cause cancer.
It was on WBBM the other evening that some doctor genius found that your cell phone at ten seconds exposure is enough to support cell changes making you vulnerable to cancerous cells.
Your radios, those cheaply made, and expensively sold motirola's you carry and use so much will cause you cancer and RF burns so much faster than anything else.
And, it's not just limited to your motorola...your TV, your microwave, your computers at work and home put out more radiation (RF) than a hospital x-ray machine, and are much more likely to cause problems for you.
Finally....
Lightning and the plane!! The plane is a conductor and resistor all in one. The outside is a conductor which explains why the lightning traveled around the aircraft, striking the ground. The lightning never went "through" anything! When the lightning hit the plane's metal exterior, a magnetic field not seen by our eyes caused it to skip over the skin, and the plane's interior such as the insulator under the skin, and other internal structures to include the fact that there was no ground present...
Ta Da! Instant illusion! Internal flight devices such as navigation are grounded within the plane, and also surge protected...another type of electrical resistance for protecting avionics.
Simple as that!
Where's radio rick at? Rick... maybe if anything was wrong here, you can correct it. If Radio Rick doesn't know, no one knows!
Volts and/or watts does not mean much. Amps are what make the difference in so far as injury is concerned.
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