raccoon
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Wed Mar-30-11 08:03 AM
Original message |
Is it dangerous to use a cell phone during a thunderstorm, as it is with a |
RegieRocker
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Wed Mar-30-11 08:07 AM
Response to Original message |
1. Don't worry, electricity is good for you like radiation. It will recharge you. |
OneTenthofOnePercent
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Wed Mar-30-11 08:08 AM
Response to Original message |
2. No. Even land-based wireless phones are not dangerous. |
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It's only actual wired telephone lines (or any other plugged in appliance) may pose a risk.
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shraby
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Wed Mar-30-11 08:08 AM
Response to Original message |
3. Honest question, I have another along the same lines..I use |
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one of those wireless headphones in order to hear the t.v. without blasting everyone out of the house. Are those dangerous to use during lightning?
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BlueCollar
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Wed Mar-30-11 08:10 AM
Response to Reply #3 |
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The key is that they're wireless...
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shraby
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Wed Mar-30-11 09:23 AM
Response to Reply #4 |
11. I kind of thought that was the case, but wasn't sure. They sure |
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are a boon when a person can't hear very good. They even work when the t.v. is muted.
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BlueCollar
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Thu Mar-31-11 01:48 PM
Response to Reply #11 |
19. It's like the little old lady who asked |
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if she could get electrocuted by stepping on the electric tram tracks in the street.
The answer was, "Only if you put one foot on the track and the other on the overhead wire..."
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MindPilot
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Wed Mar-30-11 08:43 AM
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5. It is dangerous to use a phone during a thunderstorm?! |
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News to me. And probably to anyone else who knows anything about electricity.
That was some shit your mother made up so you wouldn't talk on the phone so much.
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eShirl
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Wed Mar-30-11 08:48 AM
Response to Reply #5 |
7. Snopes.com must be wrong then |
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Claim: lightening strikes have killed people who were talking on the telephone Status: true http://www.snopes.com/horrors/techno/phone.asp
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immoderate
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Wed Mar-30-11 09:21 AM
Response to Reply #7 |
10. Then snopes goes on to say... |
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About 60 people are killed by lightening each year. Maybe one of them because they talked on the phone.
I'll take my chances.
--imm
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MindPilot
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Wed Mar-30-11 09:55 AM
Response to Reply #7 |
13. Ok then I will go with...not impossible but extremely unlikely |
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Edited on Wed Mar-30-11 10:12 AM by MindPilot
There are lots of suppression devices along the line that provide a much better conductive path that the person holding the phone. Also given that the current flow in a lightning strike is actually from the ground up, I suspect that in at least some of those cases the strike was coincidental to the use of the "instrument".
Point being it is safe (or at least a lot safer than many other activities we do day to day) to talk on the phone during a storm. The act of having an open phone line does not attract lightning...which I think was what the OP was about.
On edit: It is still a good idea to unplug your expensive electronic equipment. Lighting strikes that happen even miles away can still cause power spikes, surges, and sags which can cause damage to your electrical stuff.
If you live in an area with frequent lightning, a whole-house surge suppressor in a really good idea.
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SoCalDem
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Wed Mar-30-11 08:48 AM
Response to Reply #5 |
8. I think it was more of an issue when tvs had big old |
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lightning-rods antennas on the roof.. My Aunt & Uncle had a tv FRIED when lightning hit their antenna...back int he '60's.. they paid a BUNDLE for that big old Curtis-Mathis color behemoth in a mahogany cabinet..
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MindPilot
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Wed Mar-30-11 10:02 AM
Response to Reply #8 |
14. Had that happen when I was a kid in Florida. |
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The TV glowed and crackled like Al Bundy trying trying to fix an outlet. It was pretty cool expect back then you had to take out a second mortgage to buy a TV.
Next time it happened when I lived in Denver I was prepared. A direct hit on the antenna, and the only damage was the fried ground wire left some little burn marks in the paint.
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mwooldri
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Wed Mar-30-11 11:00 AM
Response to Reply #8 |
18. Still *is* an issue with outdoor antennas. |
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Even if the antenna is grounded.
Most homes "back home" still have outdoor antennas - ungrounded. Those lightning strikes are just as capable of frying that flashy new 52" LED flatscreen as it can those big old cathode ray tube sets of old.
All my family I know do unplug the TV antenna when there's a thunderstorm about (fortunately not too frequently). We stop using the computer and such... our antenna is in the attic so less likely to get fried.
Mark.
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Shagbark Hickory
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Wed Mar-30-11 08:48 AM
Response to Original message |
6. Only if you're using it outdoors. |
RaleighNCDUer
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Wed Mar-30-11 09:12 AM
Response to Reply #6 |
octothorpe
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Wed Mar-30-11 09:41 AM
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TahitiNut
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Wed Mar-30-11 10:10 AM
Response to Reply #12 |
15. holding up a metal umbrella. |
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Edited on Wed Mar-30-11 10:10 AM by TahitiNut
:shrug:
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MindPilot
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Wed Mar-30-11 10:13 AM
Response to Reply #15 |
16. standing in a copper tub full of salt water... |
dixiegrrrrl
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Wed Mar-30-11 10:34 AM
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17. Around here, it is dangerous to be outside at all during thunderstorms. |
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The phone is no problem, but the lightening is dangerous all by itself. Warnings to be "indoors" are automatically stated during storm forecasts.
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DU
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Thu May 09th 2024, 07:15 AM
Response to Original message |