On 1 Apr 2005 22:05:31 GMT, Ignoramus9970 wrote:
On 1 Apr 2005 21:12:14 GMT, Dave Hinz wrote:

For a very short time, anyway Then again, you do have some pretty large
electrical toys, don't you...

Well, a clamp on ammeter is not put in series with the current, it
clamps around the conductor. I doubt that it would burn.

Yes, but there will be a hella-big current induced into the ammeter
during the initial spike of current, no? It'd be interesting to see
the waveform - I suspect a _very_ fast initial rise and a slow decay,
but I could be very wrong. That initial spike, even though lightning
is a DC phenomenon, has a lot of change in a short amount of time, and
may induce quite a bit of current into your meter.

I do indeed
have a pretty large military surplus clamp on ammeter, that I kept for
myself.

Imagine my surprise

Have you ever been to American Science and Surplus, by the way? Seems
like the kind of place you would enjoy. There's one in Milwaukee, and
I seem to recall one down in your area as well.

Dave Hinz