Xref: utzoo comp.dcom.modems:3911 sci.physics:8295
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems,sci.physics
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: TrailBlazer Plus vs. lightning
Message-ID: <1989May27.225917.5015@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <3784@phri.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 27 May 89 22:59:17 GMT

In article <3784@phri.UUCP> roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) writes:
>	My physics question about all this is, what was the click I heard?
>I thought it was just the phone line relay, but my wife, in the next room,
>claims to have heard it too (the relay is *far* too soft for that).  Does
>up-close lightning make a >click< just before the *BA-ROOOM*?

Lightning by itself, probably not.  Lightning close by electronic equipment,
perhaps.  What happens when you put a very quick transient voltage through
a speaker (like the one in the Trailblazer)?  A click.  Your wife may have
heard the same click you did, or a simultaneous one from something else
with a speaker (radio? TV?) that was live at the time.  The electromagnetic
pulse that caused the transient naturally arrived at the speed of light,
thus reaching you slightly before the noise from the bolt itself.
-- 
Van Allen, adj: pertaining to  |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
deadly hazards to spaceflight. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu