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/sci/ - Science & Math

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2750041 No.2750041 [Reply] [Original]

Lightning just struck really close to my apartment building. I could see it out the corner of my eye in the window. The instant it struck, the color on my CRT monitor got really fucked up. The blue WinXP taskbar became a gradient from purple to green.

I want to calculate the distance the lightning was from my monitor. I figure if I know the approximate electric field required to fuck up a CRT monitor, I can calculate how far away the lightning was by using a couple physics formulas.

By http://hypertextbook.com/facts/1997/BrookeHaramija.shtml , lightning is about 50kA.

According to http://www.usatoday.com/weather/resources/askjack/walightn.htm , we'll say 0.05s. (ctrl-f "duration")

Therefore this lightning we'll say was 50000 * 0.05 = 2500 coulombs.

For extreme simplicity, we'll say the lightning was a point charge rather than a line (or some other complex shape) of charge.

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_field we can say that the electric field at distance r due to charge q is

E = q / (4*pi*[epsilon 0]*r*r)

In order to solve that equation, we need to know what the electric field was at my monitor. Simplifying the equation:

E = 2500 / (1.11e-10 * r**2)
where E is the electric field at my monitor and r is the distance in meters my monitor is from the strike.

I realize all this data is very circumstantial, but any help would be appreciated.

>> No.2750060

Damn.

Godspeed, my friend.

>> No.2751707
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2751707

>>2750060
I love it, someone comes in with an actual science/math question and everyone ignores it 'cause they're too busy starting or participating in science vs religion and "What IQ" troll thread!

>> No.2751730

>>2751707
whenever I see a thread with more than 5 lines of text and a bunch of numbers, I just skip over it.

who can give up instant gratification of trolling, in exchange for 10 minutes of frustration and difficulty?

>> No.2751759

So what you want to know is the electric field required to fuck up a CRT monitor, right?

>> No.2751769

OP is awesome.

>> No.2751814

do your own homework

>> No.2751830

Fucked up for a moment, or permanently fucked up?

>> No.2751907
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2751907

Read the OP.

Re-read the OP.

I dare one of you motherfuckers to find me what question is being asked; you can't do it because the OP is just a cool story without a point.


OP GET THE FUCK IN HERE AND ASK A QUESTION.