Everything you know about Lightning is wrong

Thanks to Odoo for sponsoring this video!

Thanks to @arcattackmusic for helping me not die

Actual good links:

Follow me into the parking lot at night:

[trinodot]

This kinda just shows that if youre gonna get hit by lightning, youre gonna get hit by lightning. Your best bet is to just not go outside in lightning at all.

[a.........._...__..._.....__]

The crouching dummy having his nuts be the connection to ground was all I needed to know. Will never crouch in a storm

[guts]

“Instead the gel just melted a little” as if the idea of your flesh melting (even just a little) isn’t horrifying at all

[メシャ]

I know it's really ironic to say this, but this video has the EXACT chaotic, dangerous, educative energy of a Mythbusters episode

[ElectroBOOM]

DANG IT! I should have been there with you! LOOKS HELLA FUN!

[Gunbudder]

1:03 IT DOESN'T. i don't know where this myth started, but i know that Mythbusters made it a thousand times worse. ballistics gel was NEVER meant to simulate human It is simply a very reproducible medium that slows down bullets enough to be able to compare different bullets to each other. if you make 10 different batches of gel using the same recipe 100 years apart, you should get 10 batches of gel that behave the same way. this allows people to compare various characteristics. if you want a simulation of human flesh and bone, USE A PIG CARCASS. Pig tissue is so similar to human tissue that you can literally have pig heart vales sewn onto your heart and your body will happily use them. same for pig arteries. my uncle lived with pig parts in his body for over 20 years. but here comes adam savage saying over and over that "ballistics gel has the same properties as human flesh." think about that statement for even two seconds. NONE of the properties are the same unless you are a jello man with no bones or blood or muscle or skin.

[E_PHI_r]

In a seminar, a lightning physicist (yes they exist) said we know less about lightning than we do about supernovas. I think this video demonstrates why, it’s highly unpredictable and any model we try to fit to its behavior, ends up being unreliable at best.

[seth]

As a demonstrator at the Boston Museum of Science said: Air is a much more effective insulator than rubber, and it travels through miles of it to get to the ground. Rubber shoes aren't going to do anything

[randomwatermelons]

If anybody is wondering, real lightning will most definitely break your car, at least sometimes. My neighbor had lightning hit his tree and arc to his car and it completely fried everything. Not sure if this was the straight volts or something else, but it will most definitely make your car inoperable in certain conditions.

[Consolekillscreens]

6:02 the reason you want to crouch low is because if you get struck the lightning takes a far more desirable path through your body. It’s more likely to hit your legs or back if your crouched

You crouch if your hair raises (it means your about to get struck by lightning

[tasticfan]

Boss: "What? Are you afraid of a little rain?"
Nope. But the high voltage rope from the sky? Maybe a lil.

[real_vinke]

I had a tour recently in a high voltage lab. The high voltage specialists said the following:
- 80% of the lightnings happen in clouds, only 20% hit the ground
From the 20% that hit the ground:
- 80% of these are negatively charged, and negatively charged lightnings are more attracted to tall objects than flat surfaces (like the ground)
- the remaining 20% are positively charged, and positively charged lightnings are more likely to struck in flat, short surfaces (like the ground, or a person standing next to a tree).

They advised the following:
- a car is the safest, but the radio antenna could potentially conduct the high voltage into the car electric system, so stay away from the radio and other electronics
- even a cabrio can be safe (mesh-like structures are used as lightning protection on buildings, and the meshes are often 5-10m wide) - but you need the roof on of course
- if you stand in a field with no trees, maybe laying down is better
- if you have a tree nearby, stay 5-10m next to it (closer could result the lightning to travel through the tree, and also you, farther could result that you are the highest object)
- you have about 4/5 odd that a lighning is going to hit a tall object (so it is 1/5 that it will not)
- chance of surviving a strike is 40%, and it can be even 60% if you can get medical help immediately, the remaining 40% is unfortunately fatal (most likely your brain melts lol).

Quick sidenote: high voltage is not always dangerous, there are Tesla coils out there that you can even touch. But lighnings are high voltage and high current, which is dangerous!
Also, is air conductive? Yes, and no: a lot of ions are in the air, which can create a so called avalanche reaction that results in ionising the air and making it conductive.

Nice video!

[lordlawris]

6:47 I lost it at "is lightning stupid" 😂

[George_vv]

Why wasn't THIS at OpenSauce? This would've been a cool interactive exhibit!!! STRIKE ME ALLEN ZEUS I'VE BEEN A BAD WOOD CUTOUT

[magebear]

"if you;re a small business owner, you know that nothing;s worse than being a small business owner" is the most small-business-owner vibe ever
seriously though, this is genuinely helpful. not as helpful as prosthetic limbs, but i;m more comfortable now.

[HoneyMike]

This is one of the most entertaining and educational science videos I’ve ever seen. I already downloaded it just in case YouTube has a problem with it.

[heroslippy]

I think a lot of the lighting "survival tips" come from people having miss-understanding how electricity works. It statistically takes the shortest or easiest path, but actually takes all paths just because it can. It doesn't know ahead of time the environment, it has to travel through it first, because it can't go faster than the speed of light.

[artiefufkin]

We're living so far in the future an electric car can be "busted-ass." I suddenly feel quite old

[MooImABunny]

12:43 correction: if you own a cybertruck you are not safe in a thunderstorm. not because of the thunders, because of the cybertruck

[TheGamingSeargent]

I'm pretty sure the 'avoid using the phone thing' is actually about landlines phone, as it's (supposedly) possible for the electrical charge to hit the landline cable and ultimately zap you in the head.