Slight OT : Would you sail with this around?

Check this guy's story and see if you can apply logical scientific conclusions to it:
http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/20 ... -lightning

the ancients thought lightning struck at the whim of the gods. This tells me nobody has observed logical, predictive behaviour from it for a long, long time.

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Island life in the Devil's Triangle:
http://2gringos.blogspot.com/

Me too. Only I was using a butter knife to push down a metal toaster switch, with other my hand on the steel sink.

Now, Im afraid to even touch the elevator buttons in Las Vegas.

(And I don't sail through storms)

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The Wind Is Your Friend...

Arcs, and not the Noah type either.

8 years I went to work as usual, in a high speed printing plant. However, that day, I walked into a blacked out building.
It seemed one of the head pressmen went into our building's electrical sub station and decided to mess with one of the switch handles on the electrical panels. The panel arced him at 600 volts and his body was thrown against the opposite electrical panel in the room. A sharp thinking member of his crew took a blanket and smothered him as the man ran screaming from the room with his head and body on fire
His life will never be the same, yet there were all sorts of questions raised by Work Safe BC over the incident:
1) What was he doing in the room in the first place, when there were no electrical faults in the building.
2) Most press operators carry a number of wrenches to adjust their presses on the fly. Could the extra metal he carried have caused (or added to enough conductivity to produce the arc?)

Nor sure what the eventual cause was ruled to be, but there has been a number of increases in severe electrical shock in the last few years since metal prices have gone through the roof. Wires thefts from substations are usually fatal as most wires carry a large load. It has also been noted, that direct contact does not have to be the case to start an electrical arc, if you are the human sandwich standing between 2 live high powered circuits.

Lightening aside, the old warning about looking up before you raise (or lower) your mast will still be as true today as it was when the masts were built out of recycled beer cans. Carbon fiber can build up a charge even with static electricity which if high enough can add to arcing if a large electrical source is nearby. The humidity of the air can also have a lot to do with the insulation ability (inability) of any material especially if salt and moist air are a factor near a water body (including a small puddle that you may be standing in on dry land).

Be safe...
Trinomite

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Always looking for ways to make good things 'Gooder'

Gringo
It looks like you live in a very interesting area. I'm surprised nobody has salvaged the ship.

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Always looking for ways to make good things 'Gooder'

Just talked to a friend of mine who is somewhat knowledgeable about lightning.
He stated that some masts can actually 'bleed' the charge that builds up.
A large rounded tip will not bleed very efficiently which then causes the charge to build up so a bolt can jump. A very sharp tip on the mast can bleed the charge so there is less of a chance of a large accumulation will occur.
Some science museums have lightning demonstration towers with large stainless steel spheres on top. This allows the charge to build up enough to cause
bolts.
My friend suggested attaching a very sharp tipped SS rod to the top of my mast.
But then the mast has to be grounded to the water...etc., etc.
I guess I will just watch out for possible bad weather and cross my fingers.

I've seen some really weird ideas of this (like taking a 100' Jesus statue on a mountain in Spain and putting a lightning rod in his right hand), But it seems it work as the local church hasn't complained about their TV interference.
Here's the opposite:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5wr1Ishmx0

The rounded surface of the Van der Graaf Generator does the same thing to build and contain the static charge.

It seems if we lived on a needle shaped planet, we'd never have to worry about electrical issues building up on a globe....

(Edited: Yikes, what about the 'bob' anti turtle devices on the Hobie Cats? That could be a nasty if physics does it's nasty stuff in a lightening storm?)

Regards
Fred

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Always looking for ways to make good things 'Gooder'