I’m just curious during thunderstorm, if anyone tried to fire a bullet during storm into clouds? Will the lightning strike the bullet? Mythbusters or someone else maybe did that ?

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[–] 35 points 3 years ago (2 children)
  • [–] 34 points 3 years ago* (1 child)

    Laser beams ionize particles in the air . Ionized particles are conductive. As they are lined up, they form a path.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 years ago (2 children)
  • [–] 26 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    If there were a wire tied to the back of it. It's been done with rockets.

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  • [–] 20 points 3 years ago (4 children)
  • [–] 6 points 3 years ago (2 children)
  • [–] 10 points 3 years ago

    The URL indicates it's a story about Floridians being encouraged to shoot firearms at a hurricane.

    The subsequent image seems to indicate Florida sees a lot more lightning strikes than the rest of the US.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    β€œFlorida gun owners encouraged to 'shoot the storm' and fire their guns at Hurricane Irma

    By Harriet Alexander New York 9 September 2017 β€’ 8:47am Shoot at Irma A Florida man who suggested shooting guns at Hurricane Irma out of "stress and boredom" has found that his idea has captured peoples' imaginations - with over 46,000 signing up to join in.

    Hurricane Irma is due to hit Florida on Saturday, and the state is currently experiencing the largest ever mass evacuation due to a hurricane in American history.

    But Ryon Edwards, 22, came up with a novel way of amusing himself during the storm: firing bullets into it.

    He started a Facebook "event", and as of Friday evening 46,000 people say they are interested.

    "A combination of stress and boredom made me start the event," he told the BBC.

    "The response is a complete and total surprise to me.

    "I never envisioned this event becoming some kind of crazy idea larger than myself. It has become something a little out of my control."

    The "Shoot at Irma" page Graphics suggesting how to shoot at a hurricane have sprung up online, with the suggestion that if you fire correctly the bullet might not come back and kill you.

    Since Mr Edwards came up with his "masterplan", other similar Facebook pages have been created - including one suggesting using flame throwers to scare away the storm.

    "It's time we took a stand against this bully!" reads the event description. "This is our home, nobody drives us out of our own territory.

    "Join me in this fight as we shoot flames at Hurricane Irma and dissipate her on the spot."”

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    This sounds a lot like when we tell kids "if an earthquake starts, get under something strong and hold on. Then yell, "STOP EARTHQUAKE, STOP!" until the shaking finally stops." Of course it doesn't affect the earthquake, but it feels better than crouching helpless and silent. (It might also help an adult know that you're okay so far, and where to look for you afterward.) Sometimes a false sense of agency is better than nothing.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 years ago* (1 child)

    Sure, but yelling isn't going to have any risk of accidental collateral damage. Encouraging a bunch of fucking idiots to shoot wildly at clouds seems asking for tragedy.

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  • [–] 20 points 3 years ago

    No. Lightning happens when charge builds up. When it gets big enough relative to how much resistance there is to the ground, it manages to ionize the air, creating a pathway for the charge to flow to/from ground and neutralizing it. The metal in the bullet would likely be a better conductor than air (less resistance), but it is absolutely miniscule and these things happen on an enormous scale. There would also need to be a near-critical charge there already - a lightning strike "waiting to happen". Charge keeps building in a thunderstorm, so basically it'd just happen a moment later anyway at "best", if you magically managed to fire a bullet at the right time and location to make a critical difference in resistance.

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  • [–] 8 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    In order to force a lightning strike you need to bring the charged particles closer together, increase conductivity of the air or increase the amount of charged particles. If a bullet can do any of this, it may cause a lightning strike

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago

    It seems plausible that the vapor trail of changing air pressure behind a bullet could create a momentary channel of increased conductivity and/or particle density as air rushes back into the void created by the passing projectile. I wonder if the effect is persistent enough to enable a static discharge all along the path though.

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  • [+] -29 points 3 years ago (3 children)
  • [–] 6 points 3 years ago (1 child)
  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    ? No I think it's the right thread

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  • [–] 4 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Both my comment (Obama gif) and the person you replied to were replying to someone that posted in the wrong thread. They have since deleted their comment, leaving our comments without a parent comment. Lemmy has now randomly assigned our comments to different parent comments. Actually kind of interesting.

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