If you are riding inside a metal livestock trailer and lightning strikes the trailer, will you be struck if you are touching a metal part of the trailer or do the tires ground the trailer and make you safe?
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cavallerizza
ANSWERS: 1
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It is not the tires that protect you from the lightning. Lightning has the ability to jump from the clouds all the way to the ground. If lightning strikes the trailer in question, it won't make a difference if it has tires or not. The lightning will continue to the ground. What would protect you from the lightning is the fact that you are inside of a metal shell. The metal shell provides a conduit for the electrical charges. Since like charges repel each other, the electrons of the lightning tend to want to go around the outside of the shell. This keeps the lightning away from that which is inside of the trailer. If you want to know more about this look up information on a Faraday cage (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cage).
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