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Why, during a storm, you should not stay under a big tree and swim in the lake? Is it dangerous to be in a car when there is thunder and lightning? And do you approach the window during a thunderstorm? TUT.BY asked simple questions to the chief scientist of the Institute of Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Evgeni Tolkachev.
1.
Lightning is a beautiful natural phenomenon, which must still be feared.
Deaths by love at first sight, but not often, occur.
This year, the element killed two fishermen, arrived May 18 in the Kormyansky District. The men hid under a tree on a steep bank, where they were struck by lightning.
2. And why not stay under a big tree in a storm?
– The height counts here because it's just a point close to lightning, moreover, the tree is wet, and the water is a good conductor, "explains the scientist. – The current will probably go along as likely a path. But lightning strikes and in a clean field. Studies have shown that the Ostankino tower in Moscow protects against a lightning area with a radius of only 200 meters
A physicist believes that it is safer to end up in a storm in a forest where the trees grow uniformly. And in the field, it's best not to run to the tree in search of a shelter from the rain.
– It is best to lie on the ground and get wet rather than running towards the tree. It is dangerous even near the tree. The wetland is a good conductor, the current can spread from a tree struck by lightning, from ten to twenty meters and hit a man
And the truth is: two years ago in August, a Flash killed 19 cows in the United States. Almost at the same time, more than 300 deer died in Norway from a thunderbolt.
3. They say it's better to be in rubber boots in a thunderstorm. Really?
– Of course. Or in galoshes. It is best to be in shoes on a non-conductive base, the rubber is the same.
Yevgeny Tolkachev advises and under the high voltage line pbades in the rubber boots, "so that there is no problem."
Think of thunder – get out of the pond?
– Yes, the storm of the Ministry of Emergency Situations advises people to go ashore, and that is true, – says Yevgeny Tolkachev. "The water is always a better conductor than the earth." In addition, touching the driver with the whole body is a bad idea. From a flash, you can hide inside an iron cage on an insulated chair. One hundred years ago such tricks were shown in the circus.
5.
A car in a storm is a pretty safe place
– Yes, the body of the car is metal, but the wheels, the seats are very bad drivers, and the water flowing from the car is a good driver, so that the current goes through the water, – says the physicist.
– And if it is a trolleybus? On him to go in a storm he is not dangerous?
– Go – is not present. But there is a certain probability that lightning strikes the trolley just when you leave it or enter it and at the same time touch the trolleybus with your hand. In other words, it must be a sequence of several coincidences.
6. An umbrella flashed a knowledge of a flash … Why?
This happens: a metal, and wet, part of an umbrella that you hold up doing its job.
– The umbrella handle is not made of metal, it is made of non-conductive plastics. You can shake when you hit, but a person must survive, says the physicist. – You know, the magazine "Science and Life" has described this point: in the nineteenth century, British dandies walked with umbrellas, from which hung a sort of tail. They did it most likely, because it was fashionable, but it was not insignificant – a good foundation.
There is an opinion that a draft is dangerous in a storm. Is it true?
A common belief is that in a storm it is worthwhile to close windows, doors, and in a private house – and bolts in the stove, and in general beware of a draft, a physicist can explain in part. has to do with ball lightning. If you shoot in the stove – the lightning can "get out" from there. Evgeny Tolkachev observed lightning at 15 years old.
– My mother embroidered with a cross near the window and did not notice at first, and I read lying on the couch. . The ball flew afterwards and then with a certain blow, not very strong, disappeared. He sailed in the air, with air currents. Lightning in a ball is very poorly understood, but, obviously, when we meet it, things do not always end as well as in my case.
8. Is it necessary to turn off electrical appliances from power outlets?
– Well, you will not be in a storm to turn off the refrigerator. I recommend the devices to the ground. Unheated appliances are always a risk, even if you do not live in a cottage, but in a building. The probability that lightning strikes and burns a device is not great, but it happens.
Evgeny Tolkachev draws attention: in skyscrapers, it is the elevators that are crushed, it is necessary to "grind" the earth through the apartments separately.
A cottage is more dangerous than a building that is grounded or looks like an iron Faraday cage because of the hardware in the concrete walls.
9. If there is a mobile in your hand, is there a greater risk that lightning strikes you?
– No, of course. These are different phenomena, the physicist is sure. – The lightning is moving electric charges, and the transmission of information to your mobile phone antenna is the propagation of electromagnetic waves, so weak that they do not ionize anything – neither in your brain nor in the air. To think that charged particles will perceive this as a channel is not worth it.
At the same time, according to Yevgeny Tolkachev, it's better not to talk on the phone in a storm, and that's why.
– When a storm, you have to have ears. Do not spray on phone conversations. These are similar warnings that you can not talk on the mobile phone while driving. It is best to badess the situation and know where to hide. If you are in the city – you can go to the entrance, for example.
10. And now – be afraid of a thunderstorm?
– No, there is no need to panic. There are many other dangers to which we are constantly exposed – the physicist is sure. – Lightning and electrical charges always surround us.
A scientist cites statistics: about 50 lightning strokes per second on the surface of the earth. On average, every square kilometer of lightning strikes six times a year.
– And we are constantly living in a condenser. The Earth is negatively charged, and the ionosphere is positive. Now, if you get up, there will be about 220 volts between your legs and the crown, only you do not feel it, because you are the driver. And when you lie, then you have a difference between the highest point and the low – volt 20, increase sharply – the currents are rebuilt to balance those 220 volts. Unfortunately, the school does not mention it. From the ionosphere, the current flows continuously to the ground, and we "brew" in the condenser, which is constantly discharged. Earth would have lost its negative charge if there were no thunderstorms
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