As I climed up the viewing tower in the Killesberg Park I remembered the last time I had assended it.
That was back in 2005 and a couple of days of increadibly hot and humid weather were just about to very spectacularly end.
I can remember getting about halfway up and watching the thunderstorm race across the sky.
At the time, in my diary I even wrote “With even my a basic understanding of science I realised that standing at the top of a large metal object in the middle of an open space during a thunder storm is not particularly cleaver, so I quickly descended”
Which in hindsight is actually a silly thing to have done.
True, I managed to make it to the café so I didn’t get absolutely soaked, but in terms of physics I actually put myself into a more dangerous position.
I would like to take this opportunity to point out that I am fully aware of Faraday Cages and standing inside a structure made entirely out of metal during a thunder storm is actually about the safest place to be as anything that does strike it is deflected away from you by the structure:
Wikipedia definition of a Faraday Cage
However, the fact that it’s completely open to the elements would have meant I would have gotten a soaking!
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