How much damage would a direct bolt of lighting do to you?
Nathaniel asked:
Me and my friend got in an argument. I said that if you got hit by lighting you would be seriously injured, if not dead. He said it would pass harmlessly through you, into the ground. I need to know which, if any, of us are right or wrong.
Me and my friend got in an argument. I said that if you got hit by lighting you would be seriously injured, if not dead. He said it would pass harmlessly through you, into the ground. I need to know which, if any, of us are right or wrong.
For an answer you may explore here;
[who] J J Bear
You’re right. [who] AKA Inverse Mushroom Cloud
You are correct. The lightning would probably do serious damage to a lot of your body. I say probably, because there are the extremely rare cases where people struck by lightning come away just fine. There’s even a case of a guy getting struck by lightning and suddenly becoming a concert-quality pianist (he had never played the piano before in his life, and then just developed an insatiable desire to play and could just do it by ear after listening to a song once). Here’s a link to the story (I originally saw it on a news program):
I have also heard of people getting struck to where some jewelry or other metal on their body explodes. I remember many years ago a news story about a little league pitcher who was struck by lightning while pitching in a game. The bolt hit his metal belt buckle, which then exploded and killed him. But, it was the injury to his midsection that killed him, not the electricity from the lightning. [who] Paul in San Diego