Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: lightning protection question
Message-ID: <1991Apr4.173029.10099@zoo.toronto.edu>
Date: Thu, 4 Apr 1991 17:30:29 GMT
References: <91093.214905XWUU@PURCCVM.BITNET>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology

In article <91093.214905XWUU@PURCCVM.BITNET> XWUU@PURCCVM.BITNET writes:
>The theory is that the lightning somehow has to "work against itself" due to
>the overlapping coil of the knot.   Sounds like voo-doo to me.  What does any
>one else think.  Any validity to this theory?

Quite possibly.  "Working against itself" is techno-illiteratespeak :-) for
"inductance".  Lightning is a *tremendously* sharp-edged pulse, with oodles
of high-frequency content, and the slightest bit of inductance is a major
barrier to it.  (Not that you can *stop* it -- it's just punched through
hundreds or thousands of meters of a very good insulator to get to you! --
but you can encourage it to go somewhere else instead.)  It's plausible
that adding some inductance to the power cord might help.
-- 
"The stories one hears about putting up | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
SunOS 4.1.1 are all true."  -D. Harrison|  henry@zoo.toronto.edu  utzoo!henry