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Phones Don't Attract Lightning, They Just Make Getting Struck By It Worse
from the chances-are-slim dept
There have been lots of (very sketchy) stories about cell phones "attracting" lightning, with it appearing to be a particular problem at the Great Wall of China for some reason. Now, British doctors are warning -- in all seriousness -- that people shouldn't use mobile phones outside during thunderstorms. Not because they attract lightning, but because should a person be struck by lightning while carrying one, it (or any other metal object) could harmfully change how the current is directed through their body. The doctors looked into the matter after a girl in London was struck by lightning while on her phone and received serious injuries, and found three other similar cases where people died. So a tiny number of the already low number of people that get struck by lightning -- the chances seem pretty remote, but perhaps you should add phones to golf clubs, flagpoles and javelins on the list of things not to hold over your head during a thunderstorm. Update: Of course, that won't stop the press from still claiming that this means mobile phones attract lightning.
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Thanks for both cheering me up and causing my to weep for the future.
Just so that I can add *something* productive to this thread - why are these idiots outside during a thunderstorm in the first place? If you can hear thunder, you can be struck by lightning. These people are not dying from using a cell phone in a storm - they're dying from terminal stupidity.
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Me, thats an old one but a good one, although off the tee, I can be dangerous with my 1 iron. Course, if you happen to be 30 or so yards from the fairway in any direction, I can be dangerous to you with any club.
Of course holding a metal object against your gourd would tend to not be a good thing if you got hit by lightning. Probably wouldn't be a good thing to be wearing metal shorts either, but thats a different story.
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Re: Don't blame the doc
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Re: Joe T
Dear Joe T: Next time you are stuck outside in a thunderstorm, put your money where your mouth is and don't use your mobile phone to call for help.
You see where I'm heading with this? Is it not possible that a person's instinct may be to try and call for a ride or something if caught outside in the storm? The phones themselves aren't attracting lightning, so are they really putting themselves in so much more danger? Let's get something straight, being struck by lightning is a crapshoot -- it could be nothing, or you could die, and there may be some minimal correlation with how much metal you have on you. Don't accuse people of "terminal stupidy" when you haven't thought it through yourself, moron.
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Re:
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What if you catch AIDS from eating Watermelons?
http://www.chosun.com/international/news/200606/200606230393.html
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Re: What if you catch AIDS from eating Watermelons
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Just how much metal...
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Re:
I merely feel it is necessary to stand up for people who cannot stand up for themselves in open forums such as these. These are real people, no matter how bizarre the incident. They were seriously hurt. To just automatically label them stupid is wrong, and I think have nothing to be sorry for in stating that fact. Keep posting as an anonymous coward though, and show us all how much smarter you are.
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Re: Re: What if you catch AIDS from eating Waterme
중국 화동(華東)지역 안후이(安徽)성 푸양(阜陽)시에서 난데없이 “에이즈에 감염된 사람의 혈액이 주
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"The doctors looked into the matter after a girl in London was struck by lightning while on her phone and received serious injuries, and found three other similar cases where people died."
Oh I.... get... It... Now.......
They were concerned that people getting hit by lightning were getting hurt and dying. Apparently, this is a new phenominon.
*scratches head*
and @ "at the voltages involved in lightning", its actually the amperage that you gotta watch out for, not the voltage
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Flamewar!!!
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HEHEHEHEHEHE :)
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New Medical Breakthrough
I was watching a Discovery Channel show and they had a thing on electricity. They had a lady that was struck by lightning 3 times! She lived all three times to talk about it too.
Not living in Tornado Alley myself, I don't worry too much about lightning. In the big city there's plenty taller to strike other than me. If it is going to get you it is going to get you. However, I'm not saying it is fate. You can lessen the risks and not having a cell phone on your ear when you are struck by lightning will increase chances of survival.
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i think everyone knows that freak accidents are just that. but there are things we can do to reduce the possiblity of getting struck by lightning.
however, im finding out that so many people have the mentality of "oh, thats not going to happen to meee..." instead of just being cautious.
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Can we have the other side of this?
This is so stupid....wait, I just finished a new study....people wearing seatbelts are more likely to have an accident while NOT talking on their cell phone in thunderstorms in the Sahara desert on the second thursday following the fifth friday if there is a lunar waxing moment...
I can guarantee that the amount of metal in a cellular phone has no electrical impact on whether you get hit by lightening or not. These people would have gotten nailed if they had a coke can, piece of wood, or the shrunken head of a the scientist who did the study. And before you try and say how would I know this, well I have spent the past 20 years doing grounding studies for cell sites, satellite dish locations and microwave towers in the Air Force, civilian world and as a lowly HAM. I do know what does and what does not attract lightening, how to mitigate the impact and how to build a proper EM field to redirect the energy.
This is the same type of story as those saying that cell phones kill people by causing them to walk in front of trains. Cell phones don't kill people, stupidity kills people (and now lightning), age kills people, cancer kills people.
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Re: Re: Joe T
I taught severe weather spotting classes and a portion of that class covers how NOT to get killed by weather. While being struck by lightning is a crapshoot, you can certainly vary the odds wildly by your actions - and no, it has nothing to do with how much metal you have on you. With the voltage in a lightning strike (which determines how much resistance it can overcome), unless you are wearing a suit of armor, you are unlikely to influence a strike in any meaningful way.
Trust me, I *have* thought it through. It is apparent, my friend, that you either have not, or do not have the requisite facts to make such determinations.
I suggest a visit to http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/overview.htm
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Re: Re: Re: Joe T
When you are stuck outside in a thunderstorm, you get to shelter. If you cannot (say, for example, you feel tingling in your arms, or your hair stands on end - both signs that a strike is imminent), you should get into a low crouch position. What you should NOT do is remain standing, regardless of what is in your hand.
The lady that was struck 3 times, the first outside, 2nd via phone -- hardline, and 3rd via the faucet, she never felt tingling or hair stand up anywhere. Just WHACK! However, if one is offered those warnings, you are correct.
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actually a study of reading skills
No one said cel-phones attract lightening, in fact they said cel-phones do not attract lightening.
And real data is better than your theories any day . . .
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Re: Posterlogo...
Posterlogo: "I merely feel it is necessary to stand up for people who cannot stand up for themselves in open forums such as these. These are real people, no matter how bizarre the incident. They were seriously hurt. To just automatically label them stupid is wrong, and I think have nothing to be sorry for in stating that fact. Keep posting as an anonymous coward though, and show us all how much smarter you are."
Waaaaaaa, oh these poor souls just need us to have sympathy for them and we can never criticize someone's judgement. We just have to be SOOOO sad. Posterlogo, you probably support free taxpayer-subsidized abortions because someone was dumb enough to go and get pregnant. While we're at it let's pay for more government scientific studies to tell us things that any reasonable person could figure out on their own.
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thunder and lightnings
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Re: 1 iron,
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the science part
So there may be some validity to this claim. However, I know of no particular study to backup these claims. I kind of doubt the signal power of the cell phone is powerful enough to exhibit the increased plasma discharge effect. I'd love to read about the scientific method being used to study this.
I strongly believe that a low power home wireless phone is safer than landlines during an electrical storm. Wired phones are an invitation to having electricity directly applied to the body through the head and ears.
A cell phone could easily be designed to be an early alert device, if the air becomes ionized in the area where you are standing. Florescent tube gases, for example, often luminesce minutes before lighting discharge.
Undoubtedly a ten cent sensor could be designed to pick up on this electrical feedback and warn the user about impending danger.
People get struck all the time, it doesn't matter if you have something in your hand or not. Just stay inside.
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Publishing this otherwise obvious information can actually prove damaging to the human race because someone who might otherise not grasp this obvious concept (coming in out of the rain) may survive and pass on their garbage DNA causing all kinds of problems for future generations.
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Well, no shit.
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Re: Re: Re: What if you catch AIDS from eating Wat
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Re:er..?
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lightning safety thought
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