[pct-l] Lightening risks using external frame pack?

[Paul Robison]

Upon searching out my window neither the lightning rod on my house nor none of the four neighbors have any kind of knife edge,  the all have balls on the end... This is true of my grandparents house in the Midwest as well ( which has been struck).

At the voltage we're talking about,  and the proximity to ground itself...the metal in your pack makes no difference... How grounded you are does,  but that comes down to how wet you are,  your footwear,  the type of ground you're on etc...  Too many variables to calculate

I'm not an electrician,  but I am a radio and radar technician 

All that said,  I'm sure there's better things to worry about than getting struck by lightning based on pack choice

~outpost

Ps,  being in a car is safest,  not due to the faraday cage if you do get struck ( people have died this way). But due to the rubber tires insulating you...  Greatly decreasing the odds of a strike...On this logic let's all hike in thick electricians boots

Sent from my iPod

On 2011-02-07, at 8:17 PM, Ben Crowell <pctcrowell11 at lightandmatter.com> wrote:

>> I use to use an external frame pack and got nervous about wearing it during thunderstorms.
>> Anyone know if there is any research showing if you are more likely to git hit/killed with a big
>> lightening rod array - er, external frame pack - tied to your back?
> 
> Lightning rods work because they have a pointy tip. Whenever you have a conductor with a tip or
> a knife-edge, the electric field around the apex or corner is greatly increased. This is likely
> to cause an electric discharge to start in the air right near the tip. If your aluminum tubing
> in your pack doesn't have pointy tips on it, this won't happen.
> 
> The frame might conceivably even have some protective value.
> 
> For comparison, if you're caught in an electrical storm, one of the smartest things you can
> do  is to get inside a car. Even if the area around the car is struck directly by
> lightning, you are likely to survive, because the volume inside the metal framework is
> shielded from electric fields. This is similar to why you can't get a cell phone signal
> inside a building that has a lot of metal in its building materials. It's called a
> Faraday cage.
> 
> With an aluminum external frame pack, I would expect the only effect of the frame to be
> to act as a Faraday cage and protect your gear in case you're hit by lightning. Maybe
> that would be nice, because it would make it easier for the cops to identify your charred
> remains and notify your relatives. If you're hiking the PCT with your beloved pet ferret,
> stuff the little guy inside your pack when the thunderbolts start falling, and maybe
> he'll survive to inherit your estate.
> 
>  Ben
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