Static electricity from vacuum cleaners

[Bill Dufour]

My wife and I werre driving on a county road on a nice clear summer day. We saw a power line? crossing the road about 1/4 mie ahead turn electric arc blue and vaporize in a wall of smoke. It took long enough for us to ask what is that then what was that. As we got closer I felt a little safer knowing the rubber tires should protect us.
We never saw anything on the road like ashes or metal. We did see a small fire at the base of a telephone pole. I would have made a u-turn if there was still a wire on the road.
Bill D.

[Dave Anderson NH]

I can testify to the fact that a lightning strike on a car won't get you. On 6/6/66 the day I graduated high school my Dad and I were driving home in his '65 Falcon in a huge rainy thunderstorm. As we topped a hill the car was struck by lightning. It was as if someone had poured a 50 gallon drum of orange Kool-Aid over the windshield. When we got in the garage and looked at the car there were half a dozen little scorch spots at the top of the front roof support on the passenger side which had burned right through the paint. Strangely enough neither of us had to change our underwear.

[Ronald Blue]

I can testify to the fact that a lightning strike on a car won't get you. On 6/6/66 the day I graduated high school my Dad and I were driving home in his '65 Falcon in a huge rainy thunderstorm. As we topped a hill the car was struck by lightning. It was as if someone had poured a 50 gallon drum of orange Kool-Aid over the windshield. When we got in the garage and looked at the car there were half a dozen little scorch spots at the top of the front roof support on the passenger side which had burned right through the paint. Strangely enough neither of us had to change our underwear.

Hopefully you have changed them since.....

On a more serious note if you should ever be in a situation where there is a high voltage line close to you on a vehicle or the ground they say to shuffle your feet as you move away. Lifting your feet can give a path for the current to flow but shuffling keeps both potential conductors (feet) in contact with the ground. Something they have started telling us the last few years in crane safety training in case it comes in contact with power lines or were to tear them down.

[Brian Deakin]

Many years ago I was in a department store with my wife and when I touched some of the items on display sparks came out of my fingertips
I thought this was fantastic and like the eternal school boy/child I proceeded to deliberately shuffle my feet across the carpet in the store and attempt to create as many sparks as possible
I tried to demonstrate my new skill to my recently acquired wife who told me off and made me leave the store
30 years later our children call me Fun dad and my wife the sensible parent Fun spoiler
If the children want a yes answer they come to dad if they want a sensible answer they go to mum
To this day I have not a clue why

[Doug Dawson]

In a vacuum cleaner, dust particles are drawn into the plastic tube and it is these particles that cause the build up of static elecrticity. In the case of a compressed-air source, only clean air should be moving against the nozzle. A typical domestic vacuum cleaner is a relatively clumsy device.

FWIW, that is also how it works with the you tubes.

[Tom M King]

We;ve noticed, when brushing horses, you have to wear all cotton. Synthetics can build a charge. I'm almost always wearing all cotton, and I don't remember ever being shocked by a shop vac. Don't know if that matters, or not, but it seems like it's worth considering.

[Andrew Seemann]

We;ve noticed, when brushing horses, you have to wear all cotton. Synthetics can build a charge. I'm almost always wearing all cotton, and I don't remember ever being shocked by a shop vac. Don't know if that matters, or not, but it seems like it's worth considering.

Well, this afternoon I was vacuuming router chips and dust off the floor wearing cotton jeans, a cotton shirt, and cotton underwear, and I definitely got zapped several times, even while on my hands and knees. The RH in the shop is somewhere around 25%; that may have had something to do with it.

[Rod Sheridan]

The same is supposed to be true of a lightning strike on your car or airplane if you are inside. I don't want to try either.....

Lee, if the electricity can jump a kilometre through the atmosphere, it won't have an issue jumping the 30cm from the car to the ground.

What the car provides as protection, is a Faraday cage, the metal enclosure being conductive, keeps everything at almost the same potential. The car may be hundreds of thousands of volts with respect to the earth, having the potential differences inside may be less than one hundred volts. This prevents current from travelling through your body.

regards, Rod.

[Lee Schierer]

Lee, if the electricity can jump a kilometre through the atmosphere, it won't have an issue jumping the 30cm from the car to the ground.

What the car provides as protection, is a Faraday cage, the metal enclosure being conductive, keeps everything at almost the same potential. The car may be hundreds of thousands of volts with respect to the earth, having the potential differences inside may be less than one hundred volts. This prevents current from travelling through your body.

regards, Rod.

Having been within 100 feet of a lightning strike I don't care to get any closer. I am well acquaited with faraday cages having been inside several secure communication spaces during my Naval career.