Blog: What is lightning? Why does wearing rubber shoes help you during a storm?

Lightning. It is one of the most powerful natural phenomenon, and the heat produced by the lightning strike, is as hot as the surface as the sun. As long as you study the field of electricity, then you must have studied lightning. Lightnings usually occur during storms, but they can also occur during violent volcanic eruptions when tonnes of ash is spewed, resulting in ash clouds. However, they may also occur during dust storms. Lightning is usually succeeded by thunder, and the particle at the tip of the bolt, may reach speeds of up to 60000 m/s and can reach temperatures of 30000 degrees celsius. Lightning storms occur up to 16 million times a year, and they are more likely to occur in tropical zones, where warm weather fronts collide with cold weather fronts on a daily basis. Singapore, has one of the highest frequencies with lightning strikes in the world. Studies have shown, that islands that are near the equator, have the most amount of lightning activity in the world. Why does wearing rubber shoes help people during a storm. Firstly, rubber is a material that is not very smooth. So, if you were to walk in the rain during a storm through huge puddles of water, then you would be less likely to slip and fall. However, the main reason why experts advise using rubber shoes during storms is because rubber is an insulator of electricity. Storms, are classified as huge thunderstorms, where it rains heavily and steadily and also has many lightning strikes. Lightning strikes only hurt or injure people, when there is a way for it to pass from the position on the human body that it hit, to the ground. If the electric charge can find its way back into the ground, then the person who got hit by the lightning would have an electric shock. However, if the person was wearing rubber shoes, then the electric charge would not be able to reach the ground. This means that the person would not suffer a shock, and that the person would be relatively unharmed. However, the rubber shoes is not a full proof method of escaping an electric shock. If, the person still had something that was touching him, and was connected to the ground, or vice versa, then he would still suffer an electric shock. However, I shall go one step further, and see if the presence of rain has any effects on the flow of electric charges. Water, is not a very good conductor of electricity. However, when it has salt or a chemical in it, it becomes a surprisingly good conductor of electricity. It can transfer electricity through it without losing most of the electric charges power. So if the lightning hit the water on the ground, there is a good possibility that you might get injured. However, if you were wearing rubber shoes, then you could escape.