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It has the ring of an urban legend and seems too bizarre to be true. But the claim that taking a shower during a lightning storm can electrocute you is no old wives’ tale, experts say.
quote:Dr. Mary Ann Cooper, who runs the Lightning Injury Research Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said people had been shocked and even killed washing dishes, doing laundry and sitting in bathtubs in storms. A database of these incidents is online at struckbylightning.org.
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Mythbusters did a show on this where, if I remember correctly, they proved the myth. It was show #30.
I myself don't want to be in the shower during a thunderstorm because if the power goes out, I lose hot water.
-------------------- "Maybe getting in the last word doesn't really mean you win." - The Clarks Posts: 486 | From: Pittsburgh, PA | Registered: Sep 2005
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If the pipes are metal instead of ceramic it makes perfect sense. A lot of the piping is right next to where a lighting strike would hit the electric power lines or there are plenty of places it would cross over. Also a number of houses in various parts of the country have outside water storage tanks in case of drought or the desert for the shower, bath, dish water. Add into that certain places have cisterns that catch the rain water to be filtered then used you got a bunch of routes that lightning could take to fry you if you were taking a shower.
Also if you lose the lights it can be quite dangerous getting out of the shower.
Posts: 320 | From: Birmingham, Alabama | Registered: Jul 2006
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Most houses use copper pipes - lead pipes if it's an old house - and the electrical ground of your incoming power is connected to your incoming water main. A lightning strike can and will use the piping system as a route to ground, not to mention that you can experience a "ground potential rise" from a nearby lightning strike, because the voltage at "ground" has increased from the massive current flow of the lightning strike. It is part of lightning and grounding protection, part of what I do for a living. And it is a bit of an esoteric art - it has not been fully modelled.
-------------------- "The fate of *billions* depends on you! Hahahahaha....sorry." Lord Raiden - Mortal Kombat Posts: 1587 | From: Ontario, Canada | Registered: Apr 2005
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