On the Lighter Side > New Theories
Flying Kites in Thunder Storms !
CliffordK:
I think everything indicates that Ben Franklin was very lucky. We could have easily had one more forgotten American Hero.
He apparently connected the wire to the kite to a Leyden jar. This would have acted like a primitive capacitor essentially giving the kite string a similar charge to the clouds, which might have had a slight repulsing effect. Still, had it reached the charge/voltage of a lightening bolt, then it could easily have arced through the air, or down through the silk, potentially killing Ben.
My guess is that by starting early in the storm, it allowed the system to come to equilibrium without any rapid changes like the rocket wire in RD's post. Also, he may not have had the kite all the way up into the lower levels of the clouds, and thus did not get the full power of a lightening bolt.
I certainly would not recommend anybody to attempt this experiment without using a fully isolated automated system.
William McCormick:
--- Quote from: CliffordK on 05/09/2012 05:14:01 ---
--- Quote from: William McCormick on 05/09/2012 02:49:32 ---The real world works just like Benjamin Franklin described it. He could fly a kite in a lightning storm, if only to prove the Royal science folk that their dare to fly a kite in an electrical storm, was mere childs play, if you understood electricity. Over 250 years later, you have half the world, some of the power companies, and most scientists, claiming that you cannot fly a kite in a lightning storm. There is no big deal to flying a kite in an electrical storm.
--- End quote ---
William,
I went ahead and looked up some information on the Ben Franklin Kite experiment.
--- Quote from: http://www.codecheck.com/cc/BenAndTheKite.html ---Franklin was actually lucky to have survived, for after this famous incident, several other would-be-scientists who performed this same kite experiment were electrocuted.
--- End quote ---
It is possible that Ben Franklin was more careful than the others with holding onto a dry silk string. But, he did apparently touch the key and get zapped during the experiment.
This should NOT be suggested to a general audience that it can be done safely. IT CAN'T.
Anyway, let's get away from Ben, and back to Statistics and the Population as being asked in the question.
--- End quote ---
It is just a static voltage shock he got from the key. He did it more then once.
Can you live safely in your house while there is a lightning storm? If you can then you can safely fly a kite in a lightning storm.
Those people that wrote that web page, still imply that there are more then one type of electricity. Meaning they are still back in the time of Du Fay to this day.
There is one sub matter particle on earth the particle of electricity. It repels all things. It is either coming at you, or going away from you. It moves from an abundance to shortage.
The earth charges the surface of the cloud, the cloud like an ARC rod when fully abundant and nearing explosive levels of abundance. Starts an often slow moving, meandering ARC, to leave the cloud surface, we call this lightning. The truth is that the earth charged, the cloud up. So if you are afraid of the voltage in the cloud, get off the earth, because that is where it came from.
Watch this video a few times till it makes sense to you. In the first scenario in this movie make believe the torch is the earth charging up the cloud, the stainless steel work piece. It just silently charges the cloud.
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYReqtnmM4Q
Now in the third and finale part of the movie make believe the torch is the cloud getting hit from the ground or stainless work piece, because it is being struck with particles of electricity from the work piece. And then look at the lightning like effect, that beams back to the stainless work piece and does, melt its surface. The flow that beams back to the stainless steel work piece is against the flow of the very pure DC power supply. Just like lightning, beams back to earth against the flow of electricity that is charging the cloud. But you can see it does not just want to go from point A to point B. It just kind of explodes back or violently beams back.
Watching that ARC over the years, I have actually caught little lightning bolts in the ARC, beaming back to the work piece. It is amazing to see.
The voltage of lightning is merely, all the self inductance voltage the air can muster, along with, the amperage of two huge bodies, cconnecting through a plasma. Lightning is a cathode ray. That is why from the side of a lightning bolt, you can be, cooked from the inside out. Copper pipes and sheetrock often explode, when lightning hits near a house. That is because it is a huge cathode ray. The rays penetrate like very powerful UV and x-rays.
Nothing to dealing with it, if you know what it is. Benjamin Franklin new what he was dealing with. Most people, just read about it and talk about it.
If you wanted to make the experiment a little safer, I would drive a copper ground rod into the ground and get the kite up, with the silk attached to the ground rod.
Sincerely,
William McCormick
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