Originally Posted By: Jetronic
the lightning doesn't need to hit the reindeer even. As the electricity from the lightning strike goes through the ground, the individual legs of the deer are standing on different potentials. current will go up one leg, down 3 others. And stops the heart.
Yeah, there have been cases of lightning strikes (and transmission tower faults) where all of the animals that have been dead have been aligned radially out from the source, none lying cross ways.
After much head scatching, they worked out "step voltage", which is the difference in potential between two spots on the ground while the current is dissipated...standing across gives voltage "x", standing radially gives >>x, thus only the radially aligned animals died.
Our switchyards and stations have an underground grid of 2"x1/4" copper bar so that the whole field is equipotential, but we are taught to "hop" away from something that looks bad.
AC tends to have a skin effect, which blows off appendages if you get my drift.