If you’ve ever lost gear to lightning or power spikes, you know what a pain they are. Out in rural Arkansas, where [vinthewrench] lives, the grid is more chaos than comfort – especially when storms hit. So, he dug into the problem after watching a cheap AC-DC module quite literally melt down. The full story, […]
Lightning is a powerful force, one seemingly capable of great destruction in the right circumstances. It announces itself with a searing flash, followed by a deep rumble heard for miles around. Intuitively, it might seem like a lightning strike would be disastrous for something like a plane flying at altitude. And yet, while damage is […]
For as mysterious, fascinating, and beautiful as lightning is at a distance, it’s not exactly a peaceful phenomenon up close. Not many things are built to withstand millions of volts and tens to hundreds of thousands of amps. Unsurprisingly, there’s a huge amount of effort put into lightning protection systems for equipment and resources that […]
Every year lightning strikes cause a lot of damage — with the high-voltage discharges being a major risk to buildings, infrastructure, and the continued existence of squishy bags of mostly salty water. While some ways exist to reduce their impact such as lightning rods, these passive systems can only be deployed in select locations and […]
So far in this series, we’ve talked about man-made byproducts — Fordite, which is built-up layers of cured car enamel, and Trinitite, which was created during the first nuclear bomb test. A lovely fulgurite pendant. Image via Etsy But not all byproducts are man-made, and not all of them are basically untouchable. Some are created […]