# Hand holding saves couple from lightning strike
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hand-holding-saves-couple-from-lightning-strike/727244
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [August 7, 2015, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hand-holding-saves-couple-from-lightning-strike/727244 "2015-08-07T16:35:17Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2015, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hand-holding-saves-couple-from-lightning-strike/727244/1 "2015-08-07T16:35:17Z")
[Article.](http://www.wistv.com/story/29734062/hand-holding-saves-teenage-couple-from-lightning-strike) It says that the fact that they were holding hands ‘helped diffuse the electrical current.’ So. . . Izzat so?
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2015, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hand-holding-saves-couple-from-lightning-strike/727244/2 "2015-08-07T16:44:14Z")
Not really.
They’re lucky they both weren’t killed.
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2015, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hand-holding-saves-couple-from-lightning-strike/727244/3 "2015-08-07T17:53:24Z")
_Oh we will all fry together when we fry.
We’ll be french fried potatoes by and by._[indent]-- Tom Lehrer[/indent]
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2015, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hand-holding-saves-couple-from-lightning-strike/727244/4 "2015-08-07T18:21:32Z")
> [@Senegoid](#):
>
> _Oh we will all fry together when we fry.
> We’ll be french fried potatoes by and by._[indent]-- Tom Lehrer[/indent]
_I hold your hand in mine, dear…_
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### Author:  [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2015, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hand-holding-saves-couple-from-lightning-strike/727244/5 "2015-08-07T20:45:58Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#):
>
> [Article.](http://www.wistv.com/story/29734062/hand-holding-saves-teenage-couple-from-lightning-strike) It says that the fact that they were holding hands ‘helped diffuse the electrical current.’ So. . . Izzat so?
From the article:
> [@](#):
>
> **A doctor** says two teenagers with an “electric” love are unharmed because they were holding hands during a lightning strike.
Note the expert being used for reference. The doctor is speaking outside of his or her area of expertise. Checking for accuracy would have required a few phone calls, which would have been a waste of time for what was being considered a puff piece.
From lightning safety articles I’ve read in the past, being near trees is bad. If you’re stuck near trees, you’re safer lying down, I don’t remember the specifics of why. But I’d say that the fact that they were _ **only** _ holding hands wasn’t giving them full protection.
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### Author:  [@RedSwinglineOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedSwinglineOne)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2015, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hand-holding-saves-couple-from-lightning-strike/727244/6 "2015-08-07T21:09:59Z")
It just sounds nice to say that the fact they were holding hands saved their lives. I think that since the lightning struck the boy in the head and passed through the girls feet, it would be more accurate to say the boy nearly killed his girlfriend by holding her hand… Not quite such a cute story that way.
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### Author:  [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2015, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hand-holding-saves-couple-from-lightning-strike/727244/7 "2015-08-07T21:34:32Z")
> [@Yllaria](#):
>
> From the article: Note the expert being used for reference. The doctor is speaking outside of his or her area of expertise. Checking for accuracy would have required a few phone calls, which would have been a waste of time for what was being considered a puff piece.
>
> From lightning safety articles I’ve read in the past, being near trees is bad. If you’re stuck near trees, you’re safer lying down, I don’t remember the specifics of why. But I’d say that the fact that they were _ **only** _ holding hands wasn’t giving them full protection.
Yes, if they had been lying down, having sex, they would have been even more protected from this lightening bolt.
But I suppose the newspaper didn’t want to put that in a puff piece.
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### Author:  [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2015, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hand-holding-saves-couple-from-lightning-strike/727244/8 "2015-08-07T22:05:55Z")
> [@Yllaria](#):
>
> From lightning safety articles I’ve read in the past, being near trees is bad. If you’re stuck near trees, you’re safer lying down, I don’t remember the specifics of why. But I’d say that the fact that they were _ **only** _ holding hands wasn’t giving them full protection.
Being near trees is very bad. Every year there are a couple of deaths from someone who was near a tree.
Lying down isn’t the best thing to do either. Lightning is so high in voltage that it’s a bit strange and unpredictable at times, but it tends to strike taller things before shorter things. So you don’t want to be the tallest thing around, or you’re probably the most likely thing to get struck. You want to be down as low as you can get, but you don’t want to be in any sort of typical lying down position.
Here’s why. If the lightning bolt hits nearby, the voltage will spread out across the ground and you’ll end up with these huge voltage gradients. The voltage will be highest where the strike hits, then will get lower the further away you are from the strike. If you are lying down, you could have a potential difference of thousands of volts between your head and feet, and to put it in perspective, that’s roughly the same voltage that the electric chair uses to kill people.
If you are standing and don’t get hit by the bolt, the voltage gradients across the ground could cause a huge potential difference between your feet, which will cause the electricity to flow up one leg and down the other.
This video is a good example of this. It shows a bunch of soccer players. None of them are directly struck, but quite a few of them are knocked for a loop just due to the voltage gradients across the ground.
The best thing to do is crouch down as low as you can with your feet together.
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### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2015, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hand-holding-saves-couple-from-lightning-strike/727244/9 "2015-08-08T00:20:27Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#):
>
> . . .The best thing to do is crouch down as low as you can with your feet together.
Yeah, I’ve heard that. Only problem is–if you can see it, it’s already missed you–unless you’re just going to stay in a crouced position until you think the coast is clear. I’d be interested to know if there’s any documented evidence of this having better results. I know it sounds better on paper, but still. . . .
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2015, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hand-holding-saves-couple-from-lightning-strike/727244/10 "2015-08-08T00:34:45Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#):
>
> **Yes, if they had been lying down, having sex, they would have been even more protected from this lightening bolt.**
>
> But I suppose the newspaper didn’t want to put that in a puff piece.
Well, yes, but only if they were, you know, using _protection._
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### Author:  [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2015, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hand-holding-saves-couple-from-lightning-strike/727244/11 "2015-08-08T06:08:32Z")
Isn’t it most likely that the lightning just hit nearby and retained enough differential to knock them over, and the hand-holding was irrelevant?
> [@Senegoid](#):
>
> Well, yes, but only if they were, you know, using _protection._
As opposed to sporting a lightning rod?