Is it really not safe to shower during a lightning/thunderstorm?
2007-04-03 06:16:18 · 5 answers · asked by Sm@rtAs$ 4 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Weather
Mythbusters result is consistent with Ohm's Law. There is a misconception among laypeople that electrical current takes the path of least resistance. In reality, the electrons take ALL the paths to the lower potential that are available to them. The path with the least resistance simply handles the most current. Copper pipe has low resistance, but not zero! So standing in the shower, you are a high value resistor in parallel with a lower value one (the shower pipe). Lightning strikes can have currents on the order of hundreds of thousands of amperes (100,000), but you can be killed by as little as 0.01 amperes. So your body does not need to be the path of least resistance in order for you to get electrocuted.
2007-04-03 06:52:51 · answer #1 · answered by Adam S 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Someone asked a very similar question a while back and I did some research into the subject - if you go back through my answers you'll find it somewhere.
The simple answer is that you can get a violent electric shock whilst showering during a thunderstorm but the plumbing needs to be metal pipes (most modern ones are plastic) and you would need to be touching the metal plug at the base of the shower.
Although water can conduct electrical current it's not a very good conductor and electricity 'takes the line of least resistance' (sort of) - with metal pipes this is the pipe itself. Plastic pipes insulate the water and no current reaches the water.
If I remember rightly one person a year (on average) dies in the US from lightning discharge whilst showering and three people die from electricity conducted through telephone lines.
2007-04-03 08:44:56 · answer #2 · answered by Trevor 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The mythbusters show tried this and when they put a significant discharge into a plubmbing system, theie dummy in the shower got fried. There is so much current discharge that even a fraction of an ohm in a grounded plumbing system develops huge voltages across it.
2007-04-03 06:40:21 · answer #3 · answered by Gene 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Your entire plumbing system (assuming it's metal) is at ground potential. Showering during a storm is no problem.
2007-04-03 06:21:38 · answer #4 · answered by turd 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Yes, yes.
2007-04-03 06:21:26 · answer #5 · answered by cattbarf 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋