Since earthquakes are caused by the buildup and release of tremendous, large-scale forces (from movement of huge tectonic plates that make up the earth's crust), a person jumping up and down on the fault, or even a bomb exploding over the fault, are tiny specks compared to the enormous forces working inside the earth to create earthquakes. You could compare this myth to the one that suggests that you can jump up and down on the San Andreas Fault in California and trigger an earthquake. The truth is that it's just dangerous to be outside during a storm, period- with or without metal nearby. The danger of this myth is that it fosters the assumption that it is safer to be outdoors if you just isolate yourself from metal objects. And your hair beret or necklace will only draw a lightning channel to it if it's less than a couple inches away - in which case the lightning would already be striking you to begin with! The only way a small conductive object like an umbrella would 'attract' a lightning channel is if the lightning already was about to strike less than three to five feet away. The descending stepped leader of a lightning bolt doesn't 'decide what to strike' until it is very close to the ground. Even at research labs where rocket-triggered lightning is used to test lightning rods, many times the lightning misses the test rods altogether and strikes bare, metal-less ground nearby! Sometimes it connects to the sides, not the top, of skycrapers. It hits in valleys at the base of huge mountains. It strikes the ground next to buildings, trees and metal poles (see photo below). The more lightning is studied and photographed, the more it is found to defy these age-old myths. This web site is made possible by support from CIS Internet. Visualize your umbrella or earrings scaled to size on this picture - they wouldn't even be visible. The graphic below is an approximation of what Chicago's Sears Tower looks like when superimposed next to a thunderstorm. Visualize your 30-foot high house, your 3-foot umbrella, or your 1/2 inch earring next to a thundercloud 55,000 feet high and 15 miles in diameter, and you can begin to see the relative insignificance of objects on the ground when it comes to a lightning discharge. A lightning bolt that is several miles long, generated by a cloud that is more than 6 to 10 miles high, is not going to be influenced by your jewelry, or even your house. The location of the thunderstorm overhead alone determines where lightning will hit the ground. Lightning occurs on too large of a scale to be influenced by small objects on the ground, including metal objects. TRUTH: For all intents and purposes, nothing 'attracts' lightning.
0 kommentar(er)
