WEBVTT - Ep 93 Lightning & Other Stories: Power Hour (and a Half) 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:05.800 I have lately made an experiment in electricity that I 0:00:05.840 --> 0:00:09.600 desire never to repeat. Two nights ago, being about to 0:00:09.680 --> 0:00:12.160 kill a turkey by the shock from two large glass 0:00:12.240 --> 0:00:16.320 jars containing as much electrical fire as forty common files, 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:20.160 I inadvertently took the hole through my own arms and body. 0:00:20.720 --> 0:00:23.680 The company present say the flash was very great, and 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:26.840 the crack as loud as a pistol, Yet my senses 0:00:26.920 --> 0:00:29.960 being instantly gone, I neither saw the one, nor heard 0:00:30.000 --> 0:00:32.840 the other, nor did I feel the stroke on my hand, 0:00:33.240 --> 0:00:36.120 though afterward I found that it raised a round swelling 0:00:36.159 --> 0:00:39.159 where the fire entered as big as half a pistol bullet, 0:00:39.560 --> 0:00:42.440 by which you may judge the quickness of the electrical fire, 0:00:42.840 --> 0:00:46.280 which by this instance seems to be greater than the sound, light, 0:00:46.479 --> 0:00:50.120 or animal sensation. What I can remember of the matter 0:00:50.280 --> 0:00:52.880 is that I was about to try whether the bottles 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:55.440 were fully charged by the strength and length of the 0:00:55.480 --> 0:00:58.360 stream issuing to my hand, as I commonly used to do, 0:00:58.600 --> 0:01:01.000 and which I might safely enough had done if I 0:01:01.040 --> 0:01:03.800 had not held the chain in the other hand. I 0:01:03.840 --> 0:01:06.840 then felt what I know not how to describe, a 0:01:07.000 --> 0:01:10.240 universal blow through my whole body, from my head to 0:01:10.319 --> 0:01:14.240 my foot, which seemed within as well as without, after 0:01:14.319 --> 0:01:17.039 which the first thing I took notice of was a violent, 0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:21.399 quick shaking of my body, which gradually my sense as 0:01:21.480 --> 0:01:25.360 gradually returned, And I then thought the bottles must be discharged, 0:01:25.640 --> 0:01:28.920 but could not conceive how till at last I perceived 0:01:28.959 --> 0:01:31.480 the chain in my hand and recollected what I had 0:01:31.480 --> 0:01:34.080 been about to do. That part of my hand and 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:37.000 fingers which held the chain was left white, as though 0:01:37.000 --> 0:01:39.600 the blood had been driven out, and remained so eight 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:43.480 to ten minutes after, feeling like dead flesh, and I 0:01:43.560 --> 0:01:45.840 had a numbness in my arms and the back of 0:01:45.880 --> 0:01:49.240 my neck, which continued till the next morning, but wore off. 0:01:49.960 --> 0:01:52.680 Nothing remains now of this shock but a soreness in 0:01:52.720 --> 0:01:55.720 my breastbone, which feels as if I had been bruised. 0:01:56.280 --> 0:01:58.560 I did not fall, but suppose I should have been 0:01:58.640 --> 0:02:01.000 knocked down if I had received the stroke in my head. 0:02:01.560 --> 0:02:44.600 The whole was over in less than a minute. 0:02:51.760 --> 0:02:54.239 I had a lot of fun reading that one. 0:02:55.760 --> 0:02:59.120 So I am really glad that you read that, because 0:02:59.120 --> 0:03:01.480 you always do such a job. And I'm also glad 0:03:01.560 --> 0:03:04.200 because it means that I get to tell you then 0:03:04.560 --> 0:03:06.320 who that quote was. 0:03:06.360 --> 0:03:09.120 From please because I don't know anything about it. 0:03:10.800 --> 0:03:11.720 Benjamin Franklin. 0:03:12.120 --> 0:03:14.560 Yes, oh that was my second guess. 0:03:14.680 --> 0:03:18.320 Yeah. So Benjamin Franklin, as we all know, was a 0:03:18.400 --> 0:03:21.560 huge lover of turkeys, but he was like most fond 0:03:21.560 --> 0:03:22.359 of eating them. 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:25.200 I absolutely did not know that about him. 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:29.520 Oh yeah, but one of his like preferred methods of 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:33.840 killing a turkey before he ate it was electrocution until 0:03:33.960 --> 0:03:37.240 this incident in which he was like, wow, that was 0:03:37.400 --> 0:03:40.440 really bad. I could have died, and so he went 0:03:40.520 --> 0:03:44.200 back to like normal killing a turkey. But one of 0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:47.320 my favorite things about this passage is that I think 0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:49.600 this was like in a letter to a friend or something, 0:03:49.640 --> 0:03:51.560 because then he followed it up with Okay, you can 0:03:51.600 --> 0:03:54.360 tell this person, but don't spread it more widely because 0:03:54.400 --> 0:03:55.480 I'm really embarrassed. 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:00.360 Oh my goodnes nice. 0:04:00.560 --> 0:04:04.880 I also like, don't understand how he was about to 0:04:04.920 --> 0:04:06.080 electrocute this turkey. 0:04:06.600 --> 0:04:08.960 I don't either, because I still feel like I don't 0:04:08.960 --> 0:04:10.440 fully understand electricity. 0:04:11.480 --> 0:04:13.440 Oh yeah, but same. 0:04:13.840 --> 0:04:17.240 Yeah, but I think that you know, over the course 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:20.760 of this episode and then the next week's bonus episode, 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:23.760 will have a greater understanding of how he did that. 0:04:24.200 --> 0:04:25.200 Yeah, I think so too. 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:28.760 Hi, I'm Aaron Welsh. 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:30.240 And I'm Aaron Allman Updyke. 0:04:30.000 --> 0:04:32.159 And this is this podcast will Kill You. 0:04:32.520 --> 0:04:39.159 And today we're talking about uh, lightning, electricity either both, 0:04:39.400 --> 0:04:40.600 I mean a little bit of both. 0:04:40.920 --> 0:04:44.839 Yeah, electricity and the impact that it has on biological systems, 0:04:45.279 --> 0:04:50.600 especially unexpected electricity. Not like how do our nerve impulses? 0:04:51.360 --> 0:04:54.480 Wait? Yeah, yeah, okay, cool? 0:04:55.240 --> 0:04:56.599 Is it quarantin any time? 0:04:56.680 --> 0:04:59.080 It's quarantin any time. Let's get to it. Let's get 0:04:59.120 --> 0:04:59.440 to it. 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:01.279 What are we do drinking this week? 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:04.000 Thunderstruck? Is that what we decided on? 0:05:04.360 --> 0:05:07.520 That is what we decided on. But I want everyone 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:12.080 to know that I think the discussions for the quarantine 0:05:12.200 --> 0:05:16.640 name for this episode went longer than any other one has, 0:05:16.760 --> 0:05:19.159 at least in recent memory of the past couple of years. 0:05:19.680 --> 0:05:22.400 So I wrote down a few of my favorites. Oh, 0:05:22.440 --> 0:05:26.240 I love it, the power sour m that's a good one, 0:05:26.400 --> 0:05:29.880 Lightning in a jar, Current affairs. 0:05:31.080 --> 0:05:34.320 I really loved all of the current ones because when 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:35.880 you kept suggesting those, I was like. 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:39.320 I don't get it. Oh, electric current, okay. 0:05:41.000 --> 0:05:47.080 Super juice, super juice, plug and chug and I think 0:05:47.200 --> 0:05:50.080 finally the least creative, but the one that we were 0:05:50.120 --> 0:05:53.359 both maybe second most tempted by, was energy drink. 0:05:53.520 --> 0:05:56.480 I actually love energy drink, but. 0:05:56.520 --> 0:06:00.320 We went with Thunderstruck. So, Aaron, what is in Thunderstruck. 0:06:00.360 --> 0:06:04.159 Is lemonade, vodka and blue currosou. 0:06:04.640 --> 0:06:06.960 Yeah, it's based on a real drink whose name I 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:11.200 can't remember now, maybe blue Lagoon. It's delicious. Yeah, And 0:06:11.240 --> 0:06:15.160 we'll post the full recipe for our quarantine as well 0:06:15.200 --> 0:06:18.240 as our non alcoholic plasyberrita on our website. This podcast 0:06:18.279 --> 0:06:20.000 will kill you dot com. 0:06:20.040 --> 0:06:20.880 On our website. 0:06:20.920 --> 0:06:25.080 This podcast will kill you dot com. We have everything 0:06:25.080 --> 0:06:26.960 that you could ever want to find on a website. 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:29.320 We've got merch We've got lists of all of the 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:33.320 sources from all of our episodes. We have a Goodreads list, 0:06:33.400 --> 0:06:35.600 we have a bookshop dot org affiliate account. You can 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:39.160 find links to Bloodmobile, our music. You can find our 0:06:39.160 --> 0:06:43.120 Patreon account. You can find That's. 0:06:42.640 --> 0:06:44.760 All of it, right, I think it's close enough. 0:06:44.800 --> 0:06:46.560 It's pretty close. Transcripts. 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:51.440 There we go. I have one more piece of business, please. 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:55.440 So a lot of people have asked us how we 0:06:55.520 --> 0:06:59.640 find our first hand accounts, and it's a mix of things, really, 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:02.680 but one of the ways is that listeners will often 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:04.560 reach out to us and be like, oh, if you're 0:07:04.640 --> 0:07:07.160 recovering this in the future, I am willing to share 0:07:07.200 --> 0:07:09.880 my story, etc. And so if you have a first 0:07:09.880 --> 0:07:12.520 hand account that you might like to share on the 0:07:12.560 --> 0:07:15.000 podcast or want to at least learn more about it, 0:07:15.400 --> 0:07:17.720 the best way to get in touch is either through 0:07:17.760 --> 0:07:20.920 the contact us form on our website or by emailing 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:24.280 us at this podcast will Kill You at gmail dot com. Yea, 0:07:24.560 --> 0:07:26.520 and I want to just take this opportunity to say 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:29.560 a big thank you to everyone who has ever reached 0:07:29.560 --> 0:07:32.160 out to us over the years with their experiences, and 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:37.160 also for everyone who has ever shared their first hand account. Yeah, okay, 0:07:37.920 --> 0:07:40.160 should we take a quick break and then get into it. 0:07:40.560 --> 0:08:07.880 Let's okay, So today we're talking about mostly lightning. 0:08:07.920 --> 0:08:09.840 Like when we first were talking about this episode, it 0:08:09.880 --> 0:08:10.040 was a. 0:08:10.080 --> 0:08:15.120 Lightning episode, but then we realize that to talk about lightning, 0:08:15.120 --> 0:08:19.400 we have to also talk about electricity, of course, So 0:08:19.440 --> 0:08:23.200 I want to just say up front, I don't understand electricity. 0:08:23.480 --> 0:08:25.040 It still feels like magic to me. 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:28.920 Lightning seems to genuinely be magic. 0:08:29.360 --> 0:08:34.040 So that's the end of the episode. Just kidding. 0:08:34.440 --> 0:08:37.360 We're going to do our best as always, But what 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:39.640 I want to focus on, like you said, Aaron, is 0:08:40.240 --> 0:08:46.760 our bodies responses to electricity, and especially the difference in 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:51.920 how we react or how electricity reacts with us when 0:08:51.960 --> 0:08:56.760 it comes from say your household outlet versus lightning, because 0:08:56.760 --> 0:09:02.520 they are very different, as it turns out. So electricity, really, 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:07.200 basically electric current is simply the flow or the movement 0:09:07.320 --> 0:09:11.960 of positively and negatively charged ions. Right, electrons and protons 0:09:12.240 --> 0:09:13.000 moving around. 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:15.480 That's electricity. 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:19.880 All of the things around us have charge, either positive 0:09:20.040 --> 0:09:25.120 or negative or neutral charges. Our earth, our atmosphere, our bodies, 0:09:25.160 --> 0:09:29.200 our couches, our cat's hair that we rub, right, We're 0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:32.520 all made up of atoms that have protons and electrons 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:36.400 and thus carried charges or have the potential to carry charges. 0:09:37.120 --> 0:09:43.000 So electricity is all around us. Lightning, in a very 0:09:43.120 --> 0:09:53.199 very simplified sense, is one massive electric discharge. Essentially, here's 0:09:53.200 --> 0:09:57.320 how it happens. Kind of lightning is created when there 0:09:57.400 --> 0:10:01.560 are temperature differences between air mass. So what happens is 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:05.839 like the warm air down close to the Earth moves up. 0:10:05.920 --> 0:10:09.920 Since warm air rises, it condenses to form clouds. The 0:10:09.960 --> 0:10:13.640 water droplets freeze to become like ice crystals. Or whatever, 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:16.840 and they're continually being pushed around by all of the 0:10:16.880 --> 0:10:20.400 air movement, and all of this movement between the ice 0:10:20.440 --> 0:10:25.960 crystals creates this friction that causes electrons and protons to 0:10:26.000 --> 0:10:30.640 be transferred between these water molecules, and they're continually moving 0:10:30.679 --> 0:10:35.160 around in this giant storm, right and the storm is 0:10:35.240 --> 0:10:39.760 moving along the ground. And so what happens is these ions, 0:10:39.800 --> 0:10:44.800 the positive and negative ions, redistribute into these layers, and 0:10:44.920 --> 0:10:48.400 generally the positive ones hang out on the top of 0:10:48.480 --> 0:10:52.240 the cloud. The negative ions accumulate at the bottom, and 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:56.680 the earth, which usually is kind of negatively charged compared 0:10:56.720 --> 0:11:01.160 to the atmosphere, now has this positive charge because of 0:11:01.200 --> 0:11:04.040 how strong the negative charge at the bottom of. 0:11:04.000 --> 0:11:04.720 This cloud is. 0:11:05.559 --> 0:11:11.040 So these positive charges are accumulating, they're running along the ground, 0:11:11.160 --> 0:11:15.360 they're running up the trees, along buildings, trying to move 0:11:15.520 --> 0:11:19.880 upward towards this cloud to close this gap. And when 0:11:20.080 --> 0:11:23.040 it just gets to be too much, when the potential 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:26.679 difference between the charges at the top of this cloud 0:11:26.720 --> 0:11:28.600 and the bottom of this cloud and the earth get 0:11:28.679 --> 0:11:34.319 to be just too strong, boom, lightning strike and then thunder, 0:11:34.480 --> 0:11:37.800 which is a really important part of lightning because it 0:11:37.880 --> 0:11:41.959 shows you The power of what's happening thunder is the 0:11:42.000 --> 0:11:46.959 shock waves from this explosive expansion of air that becomes 0:11:47.120 --> 0:11:50.960 superheated and ionized by this massive. 0:11:50.600 --> 0:11:52.840 Bolt of electricity that just shot through it. 0:11:54.400 --> 0:11:58.559 Now, on a really, really, really tiny scale, we are 0:11:58.559 --> 0:12:02.480 all very familiar with phenomenon because it's the same phenomenon 0:12:02.480 --> 0:12:05.640 that creates the static electricity that we're familiar with. Right, 0:12:05.960 --> 0:12:08.080 you pet your cat too hard and then you shock 0:12:08.160 --> 0:12:09.760 their nose by accident. 0:12:09.520 --> 0:12:09.920 Right. 0:12:12.400 --> 0:12:13.640 Like that, that's your example. 0:12:14.440 --> 0:12:15.880 It happens so often. 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:17.240 I'm like the socks on carpet. 0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:20.160 Yeah, I was gonna say that too, but I don't 0:12:20.160 --> 0:12:21.719 wear socks as much lately. 0:12:21.480 --> 0:12:23.360 And I don't have a lot of carpet. 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:26.600 But or like you rub a balloon on your hair, right, 0:12:28.080 --> 0:12:31.440 those actions cause the same kind of ion transfer and 0:12:31.559 --> 0:12:34.520 lighting up of those positive and negative charges, and then 0:12:34.640 --> 0:12:37.800 eventually a little teeny tiny bolt. 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:41.600 Of lightning happens between you and the floor or your 0:12:41.600 --> 0:12:42.160 cat's nose. 0:12:42.679 --> 0:12:47.040 So that is lightning. And like some real basics about 0:12:47.640 --> 0:12:51.800 how it happens. Now, when it comes to lightning, there 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:54.120 are a few different ways that it can end up 0:12:54.160 --> 0:13:00.720 traveling from that cloud to your human body. And they vary, 0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:04.840 and I couldn't find good statistics on how often you 0:13:04.920 --> 0:13:07.680 have one versus the other. And really, as we'll see 0:13:07.720 --> 0:13:10.520 when it comes to like lightning strike statistics in general, 0:13:10.559 --> 0:13:12.240 we just don't have good stats. 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:14.720 But all of these are. 0:13:14.720 --> 0:13:18.600 Possible types of like the way that you would come 0:13:18.600 --> 0:13:21.240 into contact with lightning. First of all, you can have 0:13:21.280 --> 0:13:24.560 a direct strike. If that lightning from that cloud hits 0:13:24.600 --> 0:13:26.640 a person directly, that's. 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:27.400 A direct strike. 0:13:28.320 --> 0:13:32.280 It's probably less common, but again stats are not great, 0:13:32.360 --> 0:13:36.520 and some papers will say a direct strike is absolutely 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:39.319 the most deadly, but I think because our stats are 0:13:39.320 --> 0:13:41.559 so poor, it's actually probably hard to get a handle 0:13:41.559 --> 0:13:44.840 on whether or not that's true. But you can imagine 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:49.680 you're taking a greater amount of that lightning strike if 0:13:49.720 --> 0:13:52.000 it hits you directly versus in some of the other 0:13:52.040 --> 0:13:54.959 ways i'll talk about. So the next way is you 0:13:55.040 --> 0:13:59.320 can have a contact injury, and that happens if you 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:04.000 are touched an object that's part of the path of 0:14:04.040 --> 0:14:07.280 that current. Like let's say you're touching a fawcet in 0:14:07.320 --> 0:14:11.160 your house and your house pipes get hit by lightning, 0:14:11.559 --> 0:14:13.400 and then it goes through that faucet and into you 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:17.600 or you're touching a tree at the moment that that 0:14:17.640 --> 0:14:22.280 tree gets hit, that's a contact and tree. Then there's 0:14:22.280 --> 0:14:25.400 something that I think is so fascinating that's called a 0:14:25.520 --> 0:14:30.080 side flash or a splash, and that's when the lightning 0:14:30.160 --> 0:14:34.200 hits that's somewhere nearby to you and then jumps it 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:38.080 crosses an air gap and then jumps to you as 0:14:38.080 --> 0:14:41.480 a nearby person. So you're just like splashed with some 0:14:41.600 --> 0:14:43.680 of the force of the lightning as it makes its 0:14:43.720 --> 0:14:44.560 way towards the ground. 0:14:45.120 --> 0:14:48.840 Oh, that's really fascinating. Yeah, So the numbers that we 0:14:48.920 --> 0:14:51.920 have are not great, like you said, and so I'm 0:14:51.960 --> 0:14:54.320 guessing that I already know the answer to this question, 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:56.600 which is like how much do we know about the 0:14:56.680 --> 0:15:02.760 strength or variability of those different types of contact with lightning. 0:15:03.240 --> 0:15:07.160 That's a great question. I don't fully know it, definitely, 0:15:07.760 --> 0:15:12.520 like the less direct the contact is the less total 0:15:12.640 --> 0:15:16.000 amount of electricity or energy that you're being exposed to. 0:15:16.400 --> 0:15:22.240 But in all cases, the duration of contact is unbelievably 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:26.720 short in all of these cases. And then there is 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:31.040 also ground current, and that is if the lightning hits 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:34.160 the ground near you and then spreads out like radially, 0:15:34.280 --> 0:15:37.360 and then comes up and hits you from the ground up. 0:15:39.080 --> 0:15:42.080 Those are the main types. There's also and I think 0:15:42.080 --> 0:15:45.480 this is just oh my goodness, there has been reports 0:15:45.520 --> 0:15:48.320 of something that's called an upward streamer. So you know 0:15:48.400 --> 0:15:51.800 how I said that all those positive charges are running 0:15:51.840 --> 0:15:54.760 along the ground and up to try and get to 0:15:55.160 --> 0:15:57.960 the cloud as that energy from the cloud is coming down. 0:15:58.560 --> 0:16:01.200 So there has been reports of people being struck from 0:16:01.200 --> 0:16:07.040 the energy just from those upward streamers of energy, even 0:16:07.080 --> 0:16:11.440 without them making contact with the actual lightning strike, which 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:12.880 is like what. 0:16:13.680 --> 0:16:17.160 Well, it's also interesting, like because how do you determine 0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:19.000 what it was? 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:22.000 I will post the paper where they did this. 0:16:22.080 --> 0:16:25.200 It was a really interesting like forensic analysis paper where 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:28.440 they showed like they determined, you know, it wasn't all 0:16:28.480 --> 0:16:30.600 of these other types and it couldn't have been from 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:32.560 the electric lines they were working on because of the 0:16:32.600 --> 0:16:33.880 patterns of injury, et cetera. 0:16:35.080 --> 0:16:37.160 And so yeah, that was like what they were left with. 0:16:37.200 --> 0:16:39.560 And I think it had been like a theoretical concept 0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:41.640 prior to that, but this was one of the first 0:16:41.760 --> 0:16:44.720 like documented look, this is what caused this injury? 0:16:45.080 --> 0:16:45.640 Oh man? 0:16:46.080 --> 0:16:49.960 Yeah, wow, So that is. 0:16:49.880 --> 0:16:56.800 How you can be struck by lightning. What happens when 0:16:56.880 --> 0:16:57.440 you get hit? 0:16:58.480 --> 0:17:01.360 Yeah, yeah, there's a lot. 0:17:01.720 --> 0:17:06.639 Oh, Aaron, There's just so much and so much of 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:08.320 What it comes down to that I think is so 0:17:08.480 --> 0:17:13.960 interesting is that a we do not understand lightning. We 0:17:14.080 --> 0:17:17.040 do not understand the effects that it has on the body. 0:17:18.160 --> 0:17:25.440 And two, the rules that apply to electricity and electric 0:17:25.560 --> 0:17:30.960 shocks and the body don't seem to apply to lightning. 0:17:32.080 --> 0:17:34.840 Why let's let me get into it. 0:17:36.560 --> 0:17:39.240 So a lot of the papers that describe both lightning 0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:43.800 and electricity injuries talk a lot about the characteristics of 0:17:44.040 --> 0:17:51.640 electricity that determine how much of the electric current actually 0:17:52.000 --> 0:17:56.840 flows through someone's body. Right, So these papers tend to 0:17:56.840 --> 0:18:01.680 focus on six main things. Six component of electricity. They 0:18:01.720 --> 0:18:04.240 talk about the type of current, which is whether it's 0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:08.960 an alternating current or a direct current. They talk about 0:18:09.000 --> 0:18:14.080 the voltage, the voltage being the pressure that causes that 0:18:14.200 --> 0:18:18.639 current to flow. They talk about the amperage, which is 0:18:18.760 --> 0:18:21.919 like the volume of electrons that are flowing. It's a 0:18:21.960 --> 0:18:25.800 measure of the rate of flow. And then they talk 0:18:25.800 --> 0:18:30.920 about the resistance, which is an intrinsic property of an object, 0:18:31.000 --> 0:18:36.240 and different body tissues have different resistances. It's like the 0:18:36.359 --> 0:18:39.880 ease or the difficulty with which the electric current can 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:44.479 actually travel. And then they talk about the pathway that 0:18:44.520 --> 0:18:47.440 the current takes, which I kind of talked with lightning. 0:18:47.560 --> 0:18:50.679 The different ways that you can come into contact. And 0:18:50.760 --> 0:18:55.159 if you're thinking of household electronics, you can grab it 0:18:55.200 --> 0:18:58.880 with your hand by accident. Little kids might put electric 0:18:58.920 --> 0:19:02.080 cords in their mouth, right, So that will determine literally 0:19:02.160 --> 0:19:04.600 like where in your body is this current going to flow? 0:19:05.680 --> 0:19:11.920 And then the duration of contact. Now, when it comes 0:19:12.000 --> 0:19:17.359 to lightning, the voltage and the amperage that we're talking 0:19:17.400 --> 0:19:27.000 about unbelievably high, like ten or more million volts and 0:19:27.080 --> 0:19:29.760 forty or more thousand amps. 0:19:30.640 --> 0:19:32.679 I don't really I don't have like a frame of 0:19:32.720 --> 0:19:34.320 reference for that, but that sounds. 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:34.560 Like a lot. 0:19:34.880 --> 0:19:38.600 So your household electric outlet is like one hundred and 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:40.920 ten volts and like fifteen or twenty amps. 0:19:41.160 --> 0:19:44.520 Oh okay, yeah, okay, So it's a lot. 0:19:44.640 --> 0:19:45.320 It's a lot. 0:19:47.080 --> 0:19:51.520 But lightning does a few things that regular electricity doesn't do. 0:19:52.080 --> 0:19:54.679 First of all, it's a very different type of current. 0:19:55.720 --> 0:20:00.720 So your household electric outlet is alternating current, a battery 0:20:01.359 --> 0:20:06.920 is direct current, but lightning some papers that I read 0:20:06.960 --> 0:20:10.240 said that lightning is like a direct current. But the 0:20:10.280 --> 0:20:14.399 paper that I liked the best described it as quote 0:20:15.000 --> 0:20:19.160 a unidirectional massive current impulse. 0:20:19.920 --> 0:20:23.480 Right, it's a strike, it's not a current, and that 0:20:23.520 --> 0:20:27.879 there's not a continuous flow for exactly the time exactly. 0:20:28.440 --> 0:20:32.200 And that's the thing that makes it so massively different 0:20:32.240 --> 0:20:35.800 from any other source of electricity is that the duration 0:20:36.080 --> 0:20:44.919 of contact is instantaneous. It's fractions of milliseconds, whereas, especially 0:20:45.080 --> 0:20:49.520 if you come into contact with a household electric source 0:20:50.160 --> 0:20:54.359 or something that's like putting out alternating current, your body 0:20:54.440 --> 0:20:59.560 reacts to that alternating current by having repetitive contractions, so 0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:02.679 it can you to actually grab and continue to hold 0:21:02.760 --> 0:21:06.679 on to that source, prolonging the duration of contact and 0:21:06.720 --> 0:21:11.680 therefore prolonging the damage. But this is the literal opposite, 0:21:11.680 --> 0:21:15.800 because it's such an instantaneous thing that it actually causes 0:21:15.800 --> 0:21:18.080 an effect that I still don't fully understand. 0:21:18.160 --> 0:21:21.159 That's called flashover. Let's talk about flashover. 0:21:22.119 --> 0:21:25.199 So if you think of your body as an empty 0:21:25.240 --> 0:21:30.560 can bear with me. When you come into contact with 0:21:30.640 --> 0:21:35.000 like our home electricity, an ac current. It flows in 0:21:35.200 --> 0:21:38.040 and out of that can, in and out, in and out, 0:21:38.240 --> 0:21:40.679 and every time that it flows in and out and 0:21:40.720 --> 0:21:44.720 that current reverses. It's doing damage the whole time, over 0:21:44.920 --> 0:21:48.560 seconds and seconds, or even just a fraction of a second, 0:21:48.600 --> 0:21:52.640 but a long fraction, like almost a whole second. That 0:21:52.720 --> 0:21:57.000 creates a lot of thermal energy, right because that electrical 0:21:57.119 --> 0:22:01.600 energy gets transferred into thermal energy. That results in a 0:22:01.640 --> 0:22:05.360 lot of burning superficial as well as deep burns as 0:22:05.400 --> 0:22:08.520 it penetrates through our tissues or burns through the can 0:22:08.600 --> 0:22:14.080 or whatever with lightning. The amount of current and the 0:22:14.240 --> 0:22:18.800 rate at which it travels is so massive that that 0:22:18.920 --> 0:22:23.479 can gets filled up instantaneously and the rest of that 0:22:23.560 --> 0:22:27.120 current flows out and over the can. It spills all 0:22:27.160 --> 0:22:30.800 around it, rather than staying contained within and causing damage 0:22:31.280 --> 0:22:34.600 that is flash over, and so as it flows over 0:22:34.680 --> 0:22:38.640 it can cause other damage that like normal electricity wouldn't 0:22:38.680 --> 0:22:43.200 cause because it's flowing out over your body rather than through. 0:22:43.040 --> 0:22:44.479 It, even though it's going through it. 0:22:44.520 --> 0:22:50.520 Also, Yeah, but again it happens so quickly that we're 0:22:50.560 --> 0:22:54.439 exposed to all of that current for a matter of 0:22:55.040 --> 0:23:00.879 fractions of milliseconds, So it can definitely cause super fit damage. 0:23:01.119 --> 0:23:03.480 It can melt our clothes to our skin, It can 0:23:03.760 --> 0:23:08.479 rip apart clothes from steam vapor explosion of the steam 0:23:08.480 --> 0:23:11.360 within our clothes. It can singe your hair, it can 0:23:11.400 --> 0:23:13.399 heat up metal buckles. 0:23:12.920 --> 0:23:14.080 And melt them. 0:23:14.600 --> 0:23:19.320 But it's a very different pattern, especially of burns, than 0:23:19.359 --> 0:23:22.600 we see in typical electric burns. It's like very very different. 0:23:24.119 --> 0:23:24.920 Isn't that interesting? 0:23:25.320 --> 0:23:29.560 It's really interesting, and I think it's like very I mean, honestly, 0:23:29.600 --> 0:23:32.480 it's kind of terrifying. It enormous power. 0:23:33.359 --> 0:23:35.879 I think one of the ways that I started to 0:23:35.960 --> 0:23:42.960 think about this was that lightning strikes, the damage tends 0:23:42.960 --> 0:23:46.439 to be a lot less physical, so you might not 0:23:46.920 --> 0:23:50.359 see very much damage even if you look with like 0:23:50.400 --> 0:23:55.240 an MRI or with imaging. It's almost like it just 0:23:55.359 --> 0:24:01.280 does electrical damage in our bodies and we can't see 0:24:01.520 --> 0:24:05.440 what that ends up doing. Whereas electricity, if you're exposed 0:24:05.480 --> 0:24:09.480 to it from a household source, because that duration of 0:24:09.520 --> 0:24:14.879 exposure is longer, that electrical energy gets transferred into heat energy. 0:24:15.040 --> 0:24:18.399 So you have a lot more typical burns, you have 0:24:18.440 --> 0:24:22.680 a lot more visual and physical damage that we're able 0:24:22.760 --> 0:24:25.840 to see, and these type of injuries that your brain 0:24:26.359 --> 0:24:28.600 probably associates with electricity. 0:24:29.280 --> 0:24:32.439 Yeah, that makes sense, and I think that that seems 0:24:32.440 --> 0:24:37.960 to be what makes it so difficult to characterize and 0:24:38.040 --> 0:24:42.720 to like categorize and to understand because we still it 0:24:42.720 --> 0:24:46.080 seems like we still don't know so much about like 0:24:46.760 --> 0:24:50.760 how our brain delivers signals and blah blah blah blah blah, 0:24:50.840 --> 0:24:53.800 and so when something goes wrong, we don't know. We 0:24:53.880 --> 0:24:55.439 know that something went wrong, but we don't know how 0:24:55.560 --> 0:24:55.960 went wrong. 0:24:56.240 --> 0:24:57.240 Yes, exactly. 0:24:57.480 --> 0:25:02.520 Yeah, But so let's talk about what kinds of damage 0:25:02.720 --> 0:25:04.640 this lightning is actually inflicting. 0:25:04.359 --> 0:25:05.160 Shall we. 0:25:05.240 --> 0:25:07.840