Holy crap!
To capture the incredible imagery, the scientists utilized a high-speed camera that records 40,000 images per second, positioned roughly 150 yards from the strike.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the goal of the São José dos Campos-based study was to closely examine the efficacy and function of building-mounted lightning rods. Generally speaking, the idea is that a copper or aluminum rod is installed at a building's highest point; that rod is then attached to wires that run to the ground, which work to divert a lightning bolt's intense electric charge around and away from the structure.
Unbeknownst to our human eyes, however, the rod itself isn't passive. Triggered by lightning's negative charge, the metal rod launches a positive charge toward the oncoming electrical thread, as can be witnessed by the incredibly lucky high-speed video captured by the Brazilian team.But fascinatingly, lightning rods aren't the only objects that launch electrical charges to meet oncoming lightning bolts. Humans do, too.
"Any person standing in an open area can similarly launch an upward connecting discharge from their head or shoulders," Marcelo M.F. Saba, a senior researcher at the National Institute for Space Research in Brazil and an author of the study, told theThat said, if you're suddenly in the market for a lightning rod? According to Saba, don't fall for any sales gimmicks — they're all pretty much the same.
"Some salesmen say that their lightning rods are better than the rest," Saba told the paper, "but this is just sales talk. There is no solid research on that."
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