What happens when skyscrapers are struck by lightning?

Ғылым және технология

Lightning strikes they say and indeed it does. The problem is when it strikes our cities’ tallest skyscrapers.
Why the tallest? Because the taller a building is, the more chances it has to be struck. For instance, the Empire State Building is struck by lightning about 25 times a year.
Luckily, tall buildings have built-in protectors against lightning as it can cause unforeseen damage to a building’s system and infrastructure.
These protectors are called lightning protection systems or LPS. Pretty straightforward, right? An LPS consists of systems that have three components: air termination systems, conductor systems, and Earth terminating systems.
The first catch incoming lightning bolts, the second redirect the current, and the third sends this current safely into the ground, where it can dissipate.
Air termination systems consist of lightning rods. Although these usually come in a variety of designs, they are mostly made of conductive metals such as copper or aluminum.
They are generally placed at the highest point of a skyscraper and they serve as a ‘terminal’ for lightning bolts to pass through, allowing the current to be directed along a safe path.
What happens once lightning strikes them? What do the other two LPS components consist of? How effective are these measures at protecting buildings from lightning? What is the science, technology,
and engineering behind these LPSs?
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We answer all these questions and more in our video.
#engineering

Пікірлер: 44

  • @seanpassant3174
    @seanpassant31742 жыл бұрын

    As someone that has designed lightning protection systems for over 28 years, most of this video is absolute nonsense. The clip of the stream exploding is fake, it's not a lightning event at all, it's "Blast Fishing". The description of the 'device' on the Burj Khalifa is an "Early Stream Emitter" or ESE & they are not recognised at all by the international standard (IEC 62305) and even illegal in some countries. It's a shame that such nonsense is spread as "Interesting Engineering".

  • @helbold2

    @helbold2

    2 жыл бұрын

    When the narrator said "300 million volts of energy" I knew it wasn't going to be accurate. Volts are not a measurement of energy. Volts is a measurement of potential energy between two points. You can have low energy with high voltage or high energy with low voltage.

  • @IAmThe_RA

    @IAmThe_RA

    Жыл бұрын

    A telecommunication tower (about 50m tall) is located like just 30 yards away from a house that my sister just bought and she's planning to live there in a couple of months. We were told by the community there that during thunderstorm electronic devices and appliances in the residential houses located near the tower will get damaged if they are being plugged. We live a in 3rd world country so you know telecommunication companies can get away with stuff like this as long as they signed a huge contract with the government. Anyway can you explain the science behind that? And what can she do about it to prevent surge in her electrical circuits that can damage her electronics? (I did tell my sister that she will have to at least have a device called SPD installed in the electrical panel by an electrician before she lives in that house).

  • @seanpassant3174

    @seanpassant3174

    Жыл бұрын

    @@IAmThe_RA Unlike HV or LV faults which can "return to source" (IE complete a circuit) lightning cannot (it can't go back up into the cloud base) it is also very high frequency so it does not behave like like conventional electricity. When all of the lightning energy goes into the ground, it can continue to travel through the soil, the accepted distance for this is 2Km however in anecdotal evidence we have seen distances of of up to 10Km if conditions are right. That means any electrical circuit or equipment within 2Km of the lightning event can be interrupted and damaged by the lighting energy. The best course of action is to install surge protection to ALL conductive services like electricity, data and telephone.

  • @IAmThe_RA

    @IAmThe_RA

    Жыл бұрын

    @@seanpassant3174 Thanks for your reply. Is it possible that the lightning energy gets into the home circuits via the Earth rod? Also do you think it is better that the SPD is linked to a different Earth rod instead of being linked with the Earth rod that is supposed to carry leakage currents from the lighting and power circuits at home back into Earth?

  • @seanpassant3174

    @seanpassant3174

    Жыл бұрын

    @@IAmThe_RA The energy can enter a property via an earthing system but as they all share the same "earth" in effect it's not possible to use a different source of "earth". The SPD will provide protection from inductive coupling (entering via a shared electrical service) and galvanic coupling (entering via an earthing system) so it provides protection from both sourced of surge energy.

  • @box420
    @box4202 жыл бұрын

    Nice det cord clip at 13sec

  • @Hobble.
    @Hobble.2 жыл бұрын

    Awesome work on your videos recently. Your narration, the fact you quote video sources, and seem to cover a variety of subjects. It's nice to see :)

  • @VeganTruk-yv7nn
    @VeganTruk-yv7nn Жыл бұрын

    Why not capture its power and convert it to useable electricity?

  • @datguynate
    @datguynate2 жыл бұрын

    The fact that this creator uses a blast fishing clip as "lightning hitting water" suggests there's prolly other inaccurate "information" throughout ur video.

  • @TechsScience
    @TechsScience2 жыл бұрын

    If we are Able to harvest electricity from lightning

  • @garrysteptoe2279
    @garrysteptoe22799 ай бұрын

    @ 4.26"and nature growing increasingly unpredictable" how old is the planet? nature has and always will be boss!

  • @Aksakal1917
    @Aksakal19172 жыл бұрын

    An engineering channel should not use Volts as energy unit.

  • @dogukancil5128
    @dogukancil5128 Жыл бұрын

    300 million volts of Energy... Somebody was sleeping through science lessons.

  • @will-cc3dx
    @will-cc3dx2 жыл бұрын

    Hello @Interesting Engineering, I have a question, how does a lightning "choose" what to struck? Is it random or is there science behind?

  • @change2135

    @change2135

    2 жыл бұрын

    It's due to electrostatic forces

  • @user-ht9ll6xg5z

    @user-ht9ll6xg5z

    Жыл бұрын

    if he explained the video would double time if you want to know about it there is a video on it just search "chinese lore meme" and click the first video

  • @arbinpunk4819
    @arbinpunk48192 жыл бұрын

    How do people survive lightning strikes.

  • @shaikhbakhas1324
    @shaikhbakhas13242 жыл бұрын

    It is a physics about the metallic lightning rod conducting mother nature's electricity cloud lightning

  • @user-lp2kh4sv3k
    @user-lp2kh4sv3k2 жыл бұрын

    That strike at 00:13 in the stream was frighteningly awesome.

  • @trader2137

    @trader2137

    2 жыл бұрын

    its not a lightning strike but a set of explosives detonating to deepen the canal, its shameless that 'Interesting Engineering' brought this up, even though its obvious!!!

  • @box420

    @box420

    2 жыл бұрын

    It's not, it's det cord

  • @user-ev7ht2hs4p
    @user-ev7ht2hs4p2 жыл бұрын

    1:18 🤔🤨🤔 RIP 😱🤯😳

  • @ankerbeam
    @ankerbeam2 жыл бұрын

    Cool

  • @lifeofps325
    @lifeofps325 Жыл бұрын

    uhh, large buildings need lightning rods

  • @globalislamicreminders
    @globalislamicreminders2 жыл бұрын

    What is the name of the narrator ?

  • @andrewcard8109

    @andrewcard8109

    Жыл бұрын

    Stephen hawkins

  • @CrazyGamer-ix3zo
    @CrazyGamer-ix3zo Жыл бұрын

    Pretty sure 0:12 is not lightning

  • @irfanullah8255
    @irfanullah82552 жыл бұрын

    Gry

  • @Wyborn_Lovat
    @Wyborn_Lovat Жыл бұрын

    I got here from search a quote from Who Killed Markiplier

  • @jonh3024
    @jonh30242 жыл бұрын

    😂 this video is a joke. That's not lighting striking water. That's a det cord. Good try though.

  • @geetbhagwat9902
    @geetbhagwat99022 жыл бұрын

    ACCORDING INDIANS MYTHOLOGY LIGHTNING STRIKE IS SISTER OF LORD KRISHNA 😆😅😅😎😎

  • @radhapaswan7168

    @radhapaswan7168

    2 жыл бұрын

    Please ignore this person, even in real life...

  • @radhapaswan7168

    @radhapaswan7168

    2 жыл бұрын

    @Taki Tachibana Yes, i do believe

  • @crazyveteran8041

    @crazyveteran8041

    2 жыл бұрын

    @Taki Tachibana there is nothing wrong to believe in god

  • @owner2959

    @owner2959

    2 жыл бұрын

    i read somewhere you guys have more than 200 millions gods... how you guys track them ? do you guys pray different things to different god ?

  • @sudarshangs4235

    @sudarshangs4235

    10 ай бұрын

    @@owner2959 yup

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