Originally Posted By: Don Gaynor

Applying the military formula of 1000 feet per second between flash and thunder clap, these babies are striking in my bathroom!



Years ago now, was a young research technician part time while studying the art of electronics at university, involved with onsite data collecting techniques as regards lightning strikes. Some of the very early datalogging and computer concepts based on pc's is where I came in.

We found that often it truly was the case that the bathroom of a building or house was the place where one could measure intense fields from nearby or direct lightning strikes.

It was theorized by those more degreed than I at the time that the maze of copper and other conductive piping, whicvh was almost always also grounded at the bottom end, could actually work like transformers when a large strike hit and its resulting magnetic field surrounded those metal pipes.

Interestingly, we also found that the actual strike itself did less than the back-emf generated when the magnetic field around those conductors FELL, creating a large voltage going the opposite direction.

But we did not encounter the extreme plasma effect that we call the lightning bolt, which creates the supersonic movement of air and the resulting sonic boom that we call a thunderclap inside any of the test buildings. That was coming from outside, where the actual lightning bolt struck.

It is sometimes difficult to count those seconds from flash to boom when the strikes are within about the 1 mile radius or when there are multiple strikes happening, which can have us counting for one strike and being interrupted by the boom from another.

I'm just glad I don't have to do those rather complex LRC equations anymore...


--Mac

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