Is it true that skin attracts lightning?

Question

One woman told me that. I mean lightning with thunderstorms.

Answer 1

What attracts lightning is the opposite charge... (opposites attract... : ] ), an imbalance. I suppose that if you were standing where there was an imbalance... or your skin created the extra electrical charge, then technically, yes, skin attracts lightning.

Answer 2

Lightening is fairly strange, is deadly, cannot be reproduced (at least not with the same power, nor with similar conditions), and as such leads itself to some interesting myths. Some turn out to be true, others don't.

I have heard stories about people that have been hit by lightning many times in their life. If this is true, how can someone explain that? A motorcyclist was hit while driving. There were stoplights near by, but the the lightning hit him. He should have been grounded by the tires. The lightning left about a foot in diameter pothole, and the motorcyclist did not live. This does not seem to make sense with what we know about lightning.

However, there is no evidence that lightning specifically is attracted to skin, or even to humans, for that matter. Lightning is a static discharge between two oppositely charged bodies. A human is not really capable of holding enough of a charge to be noticed. However, since we are primarily made of water, we are fairly good conductors. This means we are like little wires sticking up from the ground. This is why a person standing in the middle of a flat, lifeless desert (or field, or parking lot, or whatever) is fairly likely to get hit. This is also why lightning rods are put on top of tall structure or structures built on a hill.

There is still much we don't know about lightning, however, and I still want to know why their are a few individuals that do seem to attract it (or I want to know how that myth got started).

I will say one thing for lightning: it is awesome. When you think about the fact that we can power entire cities, but we cannot produce a bolt of electricity with the same voltage and amps as a bolt of lightning, that's impressive. Too bad we haven't figured out how to harness that energy!

Answer 3

I dont think so. It's just that lightning chooses the path of least resistance. So if you're standing in the middle of a wide flat open field, the lightning will strike you because it wants to discharge as fast as possible. However, if there are taller objects around you, the chances of you getting struck is less.

Answer 4

A conductor that is prominent above the ground surface would attract lightning. A person standing on the ground is inferior to a metal tower or tall tree for that purpose.

Answer 5

If you are the only one standing in the middle of otherwise flat surface, (picture standing in middle of a field), then your body attracts lightening.

I guess you can say your skin attracts it, as skin is the outer most layer of our body, but for the same token, you can say hair attracts lightening.

In more traditional sense, no, skin does not attract lightening.

Answer 6

Not in and of itself.
just be in the wrong place at the right time and if you are the tallest thing in the immediate vicinity you will be Zapped.