Is lightning only attracted to tall people?
In: Earth Science
no, it’s not.
When large amounts of clouds rub against each other, they charge each other, like a person charging themselves by rubbing their feet on a carpet. The discharge happens as soon as the resistance against the moving electricity is smaller than charges power to move. That’s when a lightning strikes.
Air is very resistant to electricity moving through it, so it would rather choose something easier like a tree, or something very easy like a water-filled human. So if a large person would be standing next to a smaller person, lightning would be likely to rather jump this person as it offers less resistance. There could also be a much lower hanging part of the cloud right over the small person, so there is less air “shielding” this one. Then lightning would strike this person instead of the tall one.
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