A couple weeks ago, I posted a request for explanations about how lightening works. The Discovery Channel just aired a great program. I'll relate what I can remember. Rafael, I don't get as much comfort from your 45-degree umbrella theory anymore. First, understand that a strike victim suffers both cardiac and respiratory arrest. If the heart begins beating again, the victim may still suffocate without breathing assistance. So, the first aid strategy is to work on getting the heart going while supplying the victim with oxygen. A doctor whose first aid saved the life of a victim at RFK Stadium said her heart didn't resume beating on its own for 10 minutes. That person was seated in a dense crowd of 60,000 at a benefit rock concert where nearly everything around her was higher, including the stadium superstructure and the performers onstage with electronic gear, ... and she was wearing thick rubber soles. Strikes typically leave fractal-shaped patterns on victims' flesh. Lightening comes down from the negative charge in the cloud and picks its strike location from among electric streamers which rise from the ground. As the bolt approaches the ground, it coaxes streamers up from prospective strike locations, selects one and makes contact. A picture of a bolt striking a tree in a farmyard showed a second streamer, which wasn't selected, rising from the same tree. Another unselected streamer rose from a light pole fifty feet away. Years ago, General Electric performed studies of lightening strikes on the Empire State Building. Pictures showed that some struck lower than the top and some missed altogether, striking the ground alongside the building. The explanation is that weaker bolts may be unable to coax streamers from the ground until the bolt is close to the ground. Hence, the bolt had passed the top of the building before a streamer from the ground presented itself for contact. A ranger at Shenandoah National Park, whose duty at Loft Mountain was on the high ground along the Blue Ridge Parkway, was struck seven times over many years. It was presumed he developed the propensity to attract it, but nobody knows why. Subsequent strikes occurred in places where one shouldn't be hit, such as inside his pickup truck while driving and inside a park building, after which his cap caught fire. He finally made a habit of keeping a pail of water with him in case he caught fire again. Lightening can kill without hitting a person. Of four golfers caught in a storm, the three who ran under a tree were hit but survived when the tree attracted a bolt. The fourth wasn't hit but apparently absorbed the charge which the bolt sent out through the ground. He suffered a heart attack and died. Apparently, there's a time during each heartbeat when the heart is very vulnerable if struck. Little Leaguers hit in the heart by a pitch have suffered cardiac arrest this way. An electric charge absorbed through the feet can apparently have the same effect. One researcher discovered that strikes generally enter the body through openings like eyes, ears, or nostrils, which are all proximate to and linked to the brain, which basically sits in salt water. Hence, the propensity for brain damage in survivors. A bicyclist in Vail was struck on a clear summer day on a wide valley floor with no thunderstorm in sight. The investigation concluded that the bolt, the only one to strike within 20 miles that afternoon, had come down from a cloud ten miles away that was obscured from view behind a mountain. Although it appeared from the bicyclist's vantage point that there were no storms, lightening comes from an existing storm. This bolt traveled horizontally for ten miles and then selected a target. (Be careful if you use Call Forwarding.) OK, let's get out and take one for the Gipper. Electric Bob *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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