[ RadSafe ] 10 rem from lightning??

[Ted de Castro]

I think is it incredibly unlikely that you could get x-rays from lightning!

You get x-rays from energetic x-rays striking a target and one way the 
electrons get energetic is by "falling" through a potential IN VACUUM!

When the electrons are conducted through a potential - even when the 
conductor is a plasma - there is resistance that evenly distributes the 
energy along the path of conductance and thus the electrons never reach 
a very high energy.

No vacuum - no x-rays.

On 3/24/2010 4:04 PM, Joel C. wrote:
> The esteemed journal, USA Today, reports that a lightning strike to an airliner can deliver 0.1 Sv to passengers.  This comes from research at the Florida Institute of Technology.  Anyone know what this is about?
>
>
> Joel I. Cehn, CHP
> joelc at alum.wpi.edu
>
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