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Old 2nd Jun 2009, 06:12
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Pooh Bear
 
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mary meagher

Hajik also refers to the l999 composite K-21 glider brought down over Dunstable; and I mentioned before that the UK Air Accident investigation found that the control rods were melted by the voltage of the strike, a more powerful one than anticipated by current airliner design.
Voltage melts nothing. It's CURRENT that does it. Please stick to science. Of course you have to have a voltage to make a current flow but it's not that simple. You can be sure there's PLENTY of voltage in ANY lightning strike. The released charge results in the current that does the damage. The bigger the cloud, the larger the charge and hence current.

That why a human can touch a Van der Graaf generator at say 2 MV and just get a 'shock', the charge / current is too low to do any damage.

Voltage is NOT the problem.

Graham
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