Does Lightning Affect Rubber

The small additional gap between you and the ground the rubber soles won t protect you.

Does lightning affect rubber. Remember convertibles motorcycles bicycles open shelled outdoor recreational vehicles and cars with fiberglass shells offer no protection from lightning. The video on the left shows a car being struck by lightning. So if the lightning bolt can overcome the resistance of air it can easily overcome the resistance of a rubber tire. After all lightning has traveled for miles through the sky.

However a lightning can also kill you if it strikes nearby due to the step potential. I have heard that lightning doesn t strike rubber. Insulators do not conduct electricity well compared to conductors such as copper steel and water. Rubber is indeed an electrical insulator so many would argue that lightning can t affect it.

A material like rubber is an insulator and offers more resistance than say a conductor like a metal but that doesn t mean it would prevent the lightning altogether. Here s where your grandmother is right though your car is a fairly safe place to be in a thunderstorm but for a different reason entirely. Rubber tires provide zero safety from lightning. Rubber does not protect you from lightning.

2 minute read lightning is an electrical discharge caused by imbalances between storm clouds and the. For decades many people believed cars were a safe place during a lightning storm because of the rubber tires. As you correctly state the lightning does bridge the gap between the cloud and you. But mind it rubber shoes or tyres of your bike scooter won t protect you from lightning because they are not thick enough to bear the amount of electricity that lightning passes.

Contrary to the common expression lightning can and often does strike the same place twice. This myth is often applied to. No you are not protected if you are hit directly. Most cars are safe from lightning but it is the metal roof and metal sides that protect you not the rubber tires.

Rubber is indeed an electrical insulator but your shoes or bike tires for instance are way too thin to protect you from a lightning strike. If the rubber tires were truly responsible for insulating a car then it would have never been struck. Four or five inches of rubber is no insulation whatsoever. Rubber the safest place to be in a thunder and lightning is in a car because of the rubber wheels.