On Mon, Jul 19, 2004 at 09:12:31PM -0400, Ken Elliott wrote:
> >>Lightning will take any path, conductive or not, particularly if there's
> something solid (like PVC) to guide it.
>
> Well, not exactly... Lightning is electricity. It requires a conductive
> path. It passes through the air when the electrical stress caused the
> nitrogen to break down and ionize (associated with partial discharge, or
> "corona"). I've never seen it hit PVC, unless it was badly contaminated or
> contained conductors. I could be wrong, but I used to do a lot of high
> voltage testing, and designed 150 kV insulators and bushings.
I've heard and read a lot of amazing stories about how lightning travels
when it strikes. Amazingly circuitous, sometimes. And not necessarily by
the path you might consider the most conductive. After all, this isn't a
nearby 150kV line, but a million volt behemoth.
I'm not an electrical engineer, but I'm inclined to think that if it
strikes your house, which is connected to another structure by an
overhead length of nonconductive (empty) PVC, it may well travel across
the PVC to get to the other structure. It certainly wouldn't want to put
it to the test to prove the rightness or wrongness of that theory. ;-}
Paul
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This list is provided as an unmoderated internet service by Networked
Knowledge Systems (NKS). Views and opinions expressed in messages
posted are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the
official policy or position of NKS or any of its employees.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Fri Aug 01 2014 - 20:41:09 EDT