Like metal, water is a good conductor, so it encourages the electrical current to travel over its surface rather than delve underneath, the same way a Faraday cage protects its contents from harmful shocks.
The electric current has to pass through your body to do you any harm, and the conducting sea water will carry a good deal of the current around your body. You are at much greater risk if you are protruding above the water in a boat or on a windsurf board, as I once was during a lightning storm in Australia.
When lightning strikes, most of electrical discharge occurs near the water's surface. Most fish swim below the surface and are unaffected. Although scientists don't know exactly just how deep the lightning discharge reaches in water, it's very dangerous to be swimming or boating during a thunderstorm.
Nothing will happen.
In your scenario, the salt water provides the most conductive path. Salt water is an excellent conductor of electricity. Things in the water will be less conductive than the salt water, and the electricity will go around them unless it hits something directly.
Lightning often strikes water, and water conducts electricity. That means that the currents from a lightning strike can seriously injure you. In fact, it can even kill you. This is why, when you hear thunder or see lightning, it's a good idea to avoid the pool, beach and any other large body of water.
Although biologists agree that it is entirely possible that marine mammals do get killed by lightning.
Lightening is unpredictable
What's more, bolts of lightning can get some serious distance. Just because it isn't thundering near you yet, doesn't mean you're out of harm's way during a storm. Avoid contact with open waters during rainstorms to reduce your chances of encountering dangerous conditions.
An underwater electrocution device may be used by a diver as a weapon to electrocute sharks or other underwater predators. It has a frame in the form of a hand-held weapon, such as a pistol or a knife.
Because seawater is a good conductor, the remaining current penetrates hemispherically downward and fully dissipates less than 10 feet below the surface. It is believed that lethal current spreads horizontally only 20 feet from the position of strike impact.
Not surprisingly, the majority of strikes are on sailboats (four per 1,000), but powerboats get struck also (five per 10,000). Trawlers have the highest rate for powerboats (two per 1,000), and lightning has struck houseboats, bass boats, and even PWCs.
Since water conducts electricity so well, there is no safe place in the water during an electrical storm. Lightning current dissipates in all directions. Even if the first strike was several miles away, you should never put yourself or your loved ones in danger.
In practice, fish are killed by electrocution using equipment which exposes the fish to an electric field that causes an immediate stun and which then, through extended exposure, results in permanent and fatal brain damage.
You Must Stop Fishing during Lightning. Lightning can strike as many as ten miles away from its source cloud. This is why it is recommended to stop fishing and move indoors as soon any thunder is heard.
DO NOT ATTEMPT TO PULL THE PERSON FROM THE ELECTRICAL SOURCE WITH YOUR BARE HANDS, YOU MAY BE ELECTROCUTED. Remember, your body is a good conductor of electricity, if you touch the person while they are connected to the electrical source, the electricity will flow through your body causing electrical shock.
there will be a voltage between them that could cause a shock…. Electrical wiring to the pool lights or other electricity in or near the pool can also be problematic in the event of a lightning strike to the building. If the building is not properly lightning protected, the risks are higher.”
Summer is the season for thunderstorms, and sometimes lightning can strike an aircraft that is flying. However, a lightning strike on an aircraft is not dangerous, as aircraft are designed to withstand lightning strikes.
Despite being around five metres tall, giraffes are very unlikely to get struck by lightning. But this is mainly because lightning and giraffes are both fairly rare. There are only five well-documented fatal strikes on giraffes between 1996 and 2010.
(As shown in below fig). This way, birds and squirrels don't get electric shock because current doesn't flow through their bodies due to the same voltage level i.e. there is no potential difference. So the current will bypass their bodies as there is a short path with very less resistance (in case of copper wire).
If you poke something in the eye, it will stop what it is doing. Sharks have a protective eyelid-like barrier called a nictitating membrane, but it's designed to protect from a thrashing fish caught in that shark's jaws and not from fingers.
Electrocution is painful, so it is essential that animals are stunned before it is carried out. In practice, this is achieved by using equipment that delivers current initially through the brain, and then through the brain and heart simultaneously.
A lightning strike can damage your pool's pump, filter and heater. The strike overloads the electrical circuits and can ruin the equipment. You can install surge protectors to prevent lightning from damaging your pool, but that's just another cost that makes pool ownership too expensive.
No. Lightning can travel through plumbing. It is best to avoid all water during a thunderstorm. Do not shower, bathe, wash dishes, or wash your hands.
According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, swimming is one of the safest forms of exercise during pregnancy. (Though it's important to note that water skiing, diving, and scuba diving do not get a thumbs-up as they place pregnant women at an increased risk of injury.)
Roy Cleveland Sullivan (February 7, 1912 – September 28, 1983) was an American park ranger in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. Between 1942 and 1977, Sullivan was claimed to have been hit by lightning on seven occasions, surviving all of them.
Whales make noise to communicate, locate food, and find each other. A humpback whale in the singing position.