Thread: lightning and smart phones dont mix... ?

LOL! Common as.

Cell phones act as a lightning attractor - even more effective than a Franklin rod.

Emanating from the strike is a huge voltage gradient that fries solid-state components etc. There can also be EMP damage.
At least now you know your are nuke hardened.


PS - Your insurance may not hold. I don't know of you have "acts of God" there (we don't here - that cannot be used as an "out" clause), but if you were using your phone in a storm etc etc....

haha not really nuke but i guess lightning is the next best thing!!!

It makes you long for Russian technology....


On re-reading, I realise you weren't knowingly phoning & using equipment in a storm....
If the lighting hit without warning, then you didn't have a chance to "breach" equipment safety instructions etc and hence do not breach insurance requirements.
So Sleepy, was that lighting out of the blue....?
If so, it's down to whether you legal system recognises Acts of God (if that is used an insurance out).


As to nukes, it's pretty sobering when a detonation 1-2,000 miles away fries your car and knocks out local generators.... (But let's give the President an "internet shutdown button" just in case!)

well its not my phone oh well

and you cant really predict lightning sooo... sounds random to me

Didnt they disprove the whole, cell phone=lightning rod thing on mythbusters?

Originally Posted by david69leonard

Didnt they disprove the whole, cell phone=lightning rod thing on mythbusters?

Yes they did..

Sounds like EMP damage....very possible if it blew a transformer close to where you were standing

No - it wasn't disproved. Mythbusters ain't what it used to be - they make several mistakes or inaccurate tests, and re-test things that are well know. (I'd like to say "as fact", but facts are often not!)

Read up on how (arcs &) lighting forms - its leader etc, and how "points" have charge concentration & coronas, and ditto from antennas.
I too use to think the transmitting mobile phone was crap... (I knew not to talk on landlines though!)


Lighting isn't quite random.
There is the 50m or 75m "rolling ball" rule.
It is known that certain things attract (like Franklin rods) whereas others repel (like those Kremlim domes - maybe those Arabs knew a thing ot two LOL!).


In this case it probably is EMP damage - unless there was local arcing or conduction. But I'd bet EMP.

well no transformers here to pop... but another odd story that may interest you:

i lived on hill growing up and i had a birthday card that would play "happy birthday" when you opened it. well it would go off and start playing all by itself 2 or 3 seconds before lightning would strike close. so when every one in the house heard that card they knew to get away from windows!!!... pointless & weird, i know, but interesting

id be willing to bet EMP

edit: yup i like myth busters but some stuff seems like they could do it better

Very interesting about the pre-warning, but that suggest the pre-corona (or pre-coronial lol) stage....


Unfortunately MythBusters became entertainment long ago. I accidentally see one now & again and they are just ridiculous - like zig-zagging from a crocodile (think about it!); the Hindenburg cloth burning. Early bads included non-tuned "fillings" for Lucille Ball's AM-receiver tooth; non-aviation rated screens for frozen chickens....
Even their details are so wrong - like the croc one - they used the "ferrocious" Aussie Jonson's croc.... dude - we swim with them - it's the salty that's bad!