I know the answer probably has a lot to do with situational factors (e.g. where you touch the outlet, what boots or shoes you are wearing, etc.) but I’m curious to know what causes such a variance in survivability.
In: Physics
Well to start, lightning is static electricity and a wall outlet is current. The thing that kills you is the same at the end, electricity messing up your hearts rythm.
There are 3 basic factors here, voltage/current, duration, and getting help. Lightning has a ton of voltage, but not duration. On the other hand an outlet can make your can convulse clodmsed, and you can hold the wire until you die. So both can kill you.
Now getting help is very important. Nether one is really damaging, at least as far as threatening your life. Electricity kills most people by breaking our heartbeat rythm. If you have the right tools on hand like a defibrillator you can get the rythm going relatively easy. If no one is there to help you, you may die.
Lightning almost has a mind of it’s own, after my family installed a metal fire- place, metal chimney, everything metal, in our living room, one night a lightning bolt hit the new metal chimney sticking up out of the roof, the house shook, the metal chimney channeled the lightening from the fireplace, down to a metal air vent, where it shot out the side of our house, for an instant you could see the blue bolt, feel the floor shake, until it hit the fence between us and the neighbors house, damaging the fence. Someone informed Dad, that he had neglected to install a ground wire down into the ground, for just such an occurrence. And we were all lucky to survive that, as several people commented on how or why, the lightning went to the smaller metal air vent leading to the outside wall, rather then coming through the metal fireplace into the living room, and turning us all into roman candles?
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