Phaedras Posted June 3, 2005 Share Posted June 3, 2005 I wonder...what if the lightning bolt had hit the distributor cap dead on and from one second to the other supercharged the plugs with 1 000 000 volts instead of 30 000. 1000% percent efficient combustion Better than nitrous Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frag Posted June 3, 2005 Share Posted June 3, 2005 I wonder...what if the lightning bolt had hit the distributor cap dead on and from one second to the other supercharged the plugs with 1 000 000 volts instead of 30 000. 1000% percent efficient combustion Better than nitrous With a spark that strong, you probably dont even need gas. The perfect cross between the internal combustion engine and the electrical motor? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoahDL88 Posted June 3, 2005 Share Posted June 3, 2005 Looking at the picture, I see the airbag door is up against the windshield, and the airbag is caught in a crack in the windshield. Big chunks of glass are outside the windshield, and the hole lines up with where the airbag should've deployed. No mention of holes or burns inside the car. It looks to me like the airbag cracked the windshield, not the lightning. I suspect even a near miss could cause airbag deployment. If the airbag is located on top of the dash, which i assume it is, it is made to interface with the windshield and bounce off it towards the occupant. the airbag did not make that hole. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scottbaru Posted June 3, 2005 Share Posted June 3, 2005 If the airbag is located on top of the dash, which i assume it is, it is made to interface with the windshield and bounce off it towards the occupant. the airbag did not make that hole.Well, it's supposed to work that way. There've been a lot of problems with airbags breaking windshields. Previous windshield damage, low-quality replacement windshields, or just poor designs from the factory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBrian Posted June 3, 2005 Share Posted June 3, 2005 I guess none of youse guyz listen to da Boyz, Click & Clack. They've had many 'conversations' about this. Ya know why modern car tires are black? 'Cause they add carbon to the rubber (which is a milky white in it's natural state). Ya know what carbon black is? An excellent conductor. I just read this and went out and measured the electrical resistance of my tire. It's off the chart, and my meter goes well into the megaohms. Sorry, I'm going to have to disagree with the chumps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hondasucks Posted June 4, 2005 Share Posted June 4, 2005 yeah but your DVOM isn't putting out umpteen million volts to test the resistance of the tire either And being metal has nothing to do with getting hit by lightning, not really anyway, yeaqh ,metal = conductor but what about trees? Trees aren't conductors but they get hit all the time, it's about being the tallest thing around not so much being metal, cuz the first ground leader to touch the step leader from the cloud is the path that the bolt will take. Somewhere there is a picture of lightning striking a tree next to a house, and on top of the house is a TV antenna, and off the TV antenna is coming a small bolt of lightning, pointing upwards towards the cloud... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danz75 Posted June 4, 2005 Share Posted June 4, 2005 I wonder...what if the lightning bolt had hit the distributor cap dead on and from one second to the other supercharged the plugs with 1 000 000 volts instead of 30 000. 1000% percent efficient combustion Better than nitrous Could it be like the Delorean in Back to the Future where lightning was need to get the 1GW to power the flux capacitor??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikem Posted June 4, 2005 Share Posted June 4, 2005 Neighbors car got hit in the driveway. Blew some tires and totally destroyed the electrical components. Insurance totalled it out. As far as cars not being struck by lightning because they are supposedly insulated by four tires that wont conduct very well, that does not protect trees which are wood and is not a very good conductor either. Actually the distance the bolt would have to travel on a car to the ground is only a couple of inches from the bottom of the rim to the ground. That should not be a big impedance at the voltage present. I have had jet aircraft I was piloting hit in flight when ten to fifteen miles from the source. Air is not know to be a great conductor either. The size of the charge can vary the distance covered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scottbaru Posted June 5, 2005 Share Posted June 5, 2005 Somewhere there is a picture of lightning striking a tree next to a house, and on top of the house is a TV antenna, and off the TV antenna is coming a small bolt of lightning, pointing upwards towards the cloud...Good example of why conductive objects with corners and edges don't attract lightning like non-conductive objects with mostly curved surfaces. On conductive surfaces, the electons collect on an edge closest to the cloud with opposite charge, and fly off when the charge is strong enough. The conductive surface allows them to move rapidly to the edge, so they stream off quickly and harmlessly before building a massive charge. Rain water isn't that great a conductor (too pure), nor are tires or pavement or a house's foundation. A metal conductor with good ground contact is a good ground. Most lightning is cloud-to-cloud, and sometimes airplanes trigger it, but usually lightning from airplanes is relatively small (but still impressive). I've also been hit many times inflight, usually the ground crew finds little or no evidence of the hit. Pinholes, squiggly lines, maybe a soft spot in a radome. I have flown planes that had something a little screwy after being hit, like a computer that didn't work right. Airplanes tend to stream the charge off their sharp trailing edges. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simbey1982 Posted June 5, 2005 Share Posted June 5, 2005 Obviously she didnt have her chrono computer set...or was not traveling at the needed 88 miles per hour Because obviously she would have been sent traveling through time But seriously the lightning bolt hit the windshield wiper, which vaporized it cracking the windshield. Either the impact or electrical surge caused the airbags to deploy.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AWD Posted July 1, 2005 Share Posted July 1, 2005 It's so obvious why the windshield is bent OUTWARD ... we all know that when the alien bursts out of your chest, uh, I mean car, it tends to bend the ribs, er, I mean, glass outward. So simple. Sheesh! Some people ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gillans Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 I wouldn't have thought lightning could keep up with a subie. Was just doing some reading on an industry message board relating to auto glass. Came across this article about a car hit by lightning near Salt Lake City. Bummed when I checked it out and saw it was a Subaru!! Looks like maybe a 95 or 96 Legacy wagon. Guess I was just surprised that the lightning would actually hit the car????? http://radio.ksl.com/index.php?sid=203158&nid=19 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PopsicleMud Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 Could it be like the Delorean in Back to the Future where lightning was need to get the 1GW to power the flux capacitor??? Actually, I believe that's 1.21GW. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KStretch55 Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 A lot of aircraft do get hit on the ground and in the air. On the ground a lot of them are grounded, either by a ground wire or tie down chains, which helps provide a path for the charge and minimize damage to the aircraft. An aircraft getting hit in the air isn't really much different than a car getting hit. The only difference is altitude. Because the tires do insulate a vehicle, car or airplane, from the ground the vehicle is in effect a few inches off the ground. It's just the old principal of "Path of least resistance". The charge begins to jump and finds a path of less resistance than the air, the conductive parts of the vehicle. Most likely the frame and skin. I believe it's the electromagnetic pulse that's generated that wreaks most of the havoc with the electronic components, as well as can cause some metal parts to get hot (I know a pilot who had 2nd degree burns anywhere there was a zipper on his flightsuit after his F-102 was struck by lightning.). Radomes and other laminates can be damaged because the tiny air and/or moisture bubbles contained in them can burst like popcorn. (If you ever see a tree that's been hit, you will note that it has literally exploded from the moisture in the wood being instantaneously turned to steam.) The occupants of a vehicle are generally safe because they aren't grounded, therefor the charge doesn't flow through them. Once again, the path of least resistance. They are like a bird sitting on a high voltage wire, there's no path to ground so no circuit. I'm not getting too involved in this subject, except to say that if tires don't insulate the car from ground, then why don't a lot of airplanes get hit when they are parked at airports. That's a huge metal box. It may be possible this subie had a grounding strip attached to it, reducing the chance of static shock in the dry Utah climate. If it did, then the car would be a great lightning rod. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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