That storm yesterday was pretty speccy. Lightning and thunder everywhere.
So where’s the safest spot to be in an electrical storm? Well, in a building, obviously, but what if you’re out and about when a storm hits?
We all know not to stand under trees, flagpoles, or any other prominent object – so where DO we go?
Well, if possible, hop in a car. Cars are the perfect shield from lightning for two reasons.
Firstly, they are connected to the earth by rubber (tyres), and we all know that rubber is a very poor insulator.
Secondly, and most importantly, your car is a Faraday Cage.
Essentially, your car is a metal box, and metal boxes (called Faraday cages) are used to isolate things inside them from any electrical field. Many delicate scientific instruments that require very precise electronic measurements are housed inside a Faraday cage.
Stated simply, there is no electrical field inside a metal box.
The only reason that you are able to get signal to your mobile phone inside a car is because of the glass windows. You would find that if you happened to be in the army, for example, and you hopped inside your tank, you would lose all reception on your mobile phone.
So what this means is that even if lightning were to strike your car, it wouldn’t get inside. If there was sufficient electrical potential to overcome the resistance of your rubber tyres (which is possible) electricity would conduct around the body of your car and into the ground – it wouldn’t affect you in any way.
In fact it is quite common for aircraft to be struck by lightning, and the Apollo 12 spacecraft was struck by lightning as it was lifting off the launchpad. But these vehicles are built to withstand this, which simply means that all electronic components are isolated from the fuselage of the aircraft.