New 0zzie style lightning rod

gus

If anyone even starts to think that im just laying in wait to get a full strike onto the bridge & sell it to the highest news/TV station bidder to fund my 600mm f/4...

...then your absolutely right.

One mans BBQ is another mans lens.

Skippy

Ohhhhhhh I Get It

Humungus wrote:

If anyone even starts to think that im just laying in wait to get a full strike onto the bridge & sell it to the highest news/TV station bidder to fund my 600mm f/4...

...then your absolutely right.

One mans BBQ is another mans lens.

Ohhhhhh they are brave soles being up there with all that electricity flashing about ..........great captures on your part Gus........excellent even.

Sooooooooo all those little people at the top will light up like a christmas tree and fall like stars into water below when the Bolt gets them??
Hmmmmmmmmmmm I don't think I wanna be up there during a lighting storm

Well good luck with the dream Gus, ..... it will help kill time
Skippy (Australia)

gus

Skippy wrote:

Ohhhhhh they are brave sole
Skippy (Australia)

I dont know about brave skip...foolhardy maybe. Im pretty casual with lightning & that storm had past over but its always the stray bolt that jumps miles away from the action that whumps you.

ed_h

Interesting pictures. Pardon my ignorance of all things electrical but what is the difference between them at the top and someone walking across the bridge? are they all as likely to get zapped.
ed

gus

ed_h wrote:

Interesting pictures. Pardon my ignorance of all things electrical but what is the difference between them at the top and someone walking across the bridge? are they all as likely to get zapped.
ed

Now worries ed...on the top the lightning could well hit you & go over your body looking for a path to earth....if you were walking across then its a lot more likely to hit some part above or away from you thus you are not part of the path as it will just run through the bridge.

ed_h

Humungus wrote:

Now worries ed...on the top the lightning could well hit you & go over your body looking for a path to earth....if you were walking across then its a lot more likely to hit some part above or away from you thus you are not part of the path as it will just run through the bridge.

Thanks for the explanation, next stupid question what would happen to you while walking across the bridge if you happened to touch part of the steel structure while the lightning was passing thru on its way to earth.
ed

gus

ed_h wrote:

Thanks for the explanation, next stupid question what would happen to you while walking across the bridge if you happened to touch part of the steel structure while the lightning was passing thru on its way to earth.
ed

I=V/R ed... in my estimate.. absolutely nothing. It soley depends on the potential voltage difference between the bit you touched with your hand & the other bit that your feet would be on. ie if your hand was at 1000 volts potential & your feet were at 0 volts potential then 1000 volts would run through your body. (much higher in lightning of course which will run over your body & not through it) There is not likely to be a potenial diff between a bit of steel your hand & foot can both reach say 8 feet on a bridge as its all welded & bolted. But hyperthetically if you were to grab a bit of wire connected to one end of the bridge & a bit connected to the other end then you would be asking for trouble as there would be a diff in potential at the moment of strike. Another stupid thing to do would be to place one hand on a steel structure & your feet on earth thus giving max potential difference.ie Dont lean on trees & poles in a storm.

Remembering also that a bridge has an excellent earth so basically as long as you are out of its path to earth...it couldnt care less about you.

This is the worry with people approaching downed wires in a storm. They assume they can walk up to them & be safe at several feet away to just have a look. Say the wire on the ground is HV at 6600 ...this voltage will diminish in an outward patterned circle so say the wire is 6600v on the ground & still live...2 feet away is now charged at 4000v...4 feet away is 2000v & 6 feet away is 500v. As you walk towards it your feet separate & thus each foot is at a different potential ie 1000 volts for the left & as the right foot is placed closer to the wire its then at 2000 volts & thus 1000 can flow between your feet. This can be for ANY overhead wire as even though it may be low voltage 110volts or telephone/pay tv...300 yards away after a storm it could well have high voltage wires wrapped around it & still live...not common but possible.

We lost 3 people here on this very subject a few years ago. A young boy was killed as he got to the wire..his mother ran in & died & then a neighbour ran in & died also. I have also heard of several deaths in a local fresh water lake from the same thing...kids ran in & died one at a time & then the father ran in also.