w_tom wrote:


The baseball cage may act as a good lightning rod. But then
electricity passes beneath a human to cause harm. IOW the faraday cage
is not complete because the earth beneath the human was not
sufficiently conductive.

With no mesh underfoot, it might depend on the shape of the cage. If
you were surrounded on three sides, there might not be much current
underfoot because the metal fence would be a better conductor. At the
nearest playground, the "batter's cage" is just a wide V backstop, so I
wouldn't stand there in a storm.

Pointy rods on the top of the cage might prevent a lot of strikes by
bleeding off charges.

BTW, lightning is not DC. Lightning is AC current - mostly in radio
frequency ranges. This AC nature is why longer conductors, sufficient
for 60 Hz AC electric power, can be poor conductors to lightning; its
energy in higher frequencies. This AC nature of lightning is why so
many humans think lightning is capricious.

I think I've read that there can be several phases in a lightning
strike, and maybe electricity flows back and forth. I can't remember.
Anyway, lightning doesn't have to be AC for a power line to be a poor
conductor. Inductance reacts against a sudden change in current. With
lightning, the change is so sudden that a little inductance means a lot
of impedance.

Leading from a 220V transformer to a house, the three conductors are
usually twisted together nowadays. The reduces inductance. I'll bet
we'd have less damage from surges with fast rise times, whether or not
caused by lightning, if power companies spaced the conductors a foot
apart as they once did.