Original subtitles

(dramatic orchestra music)

The backyard of this Auckland house

hides an unusual device.

A machine that makes lightning.

It was invented by Nikola Tesla in 1891.

And this tesla coil is the biggest in the world.

It's seven meters tall and nets two million volts

of deadly electricity pulsating in the night sky.

But compared to lightning from the clouds,

that is just a fluffy kitten.

If you've ever wondered, what is lightning?

And what would it be like to be struck by lightning?

Would you survive?

I'm gonna find out.

In this episode I'll be testing conductivity

by putting electricity through a small child.

We see what kind of destruction a whole lot of amps can do.

And what small electric shocks do to a human

as well as what big electric shocks do.

And at the high voltage lab,

I'll try to survive a lightning bolt.

And three two one.

(lightning cracks)

I've always been fascinated with how the world works

and I've got lots of questions about why things happen.

To find out the answers, I'm gonna blow stuff up.

Every time you get a zap, when you take the clothes

out of the clothes dryer or you touch a door handle,

that's lightning, kind of.

That zap is produced by static electricity.

The great philosopher Thales was the first to describe

static electricity.

Now he didn't have a clothes dryer, but he did have a cat.

And for reasons that aren't entirely clear,

he liked to rub his cat with amber.

When he did that, he noticed two things immediately,

one, it was very relaxing,

and two, the amber seemed to develop a strange force

which meant that it could pick up feathers.

Thales thought that that meant the amber had a soul,

but then he was a bit of a cat rubber

so you can't really expect much there.

A few thousand years later and we've got electricity

mostly figured out.

We all know that everything is made of atoms,

which are like small solar systems with a central mass

holding everything together, and electrons orbiting

around the outside.

But the cool thing is that some of those electrons

are able to move, and it's that movement of electrons

which is electricity.

One place where this happens again and again

is when tall buildings are struck by lightning.

Auckland's Sky Tower has been hit thousands of times.

To see how it protects itself,

I'm gonna have to climb up the building

on a ladder.

Holy (beep).

300 meters above the ground.

Oh my god.

Sitting at the top of this tower is a device designed

by the American inventor, Benjamin Franklin.

This is the very top of the Sky Tower

and it's the highest building in the southern hemisphere.

And because lightning always tends to strike

the tallest thing around, they needed this thing,

which is a lightning conductor.

And that channels all of the energy from the lightning bolt

safely to the ground, which is why the Sky Tower

is still standing after thousands of lightning strikes.

So why does the Sky Tower's conductor attract lightning?

A 300 year old experiment answers this question.

In 1730 Stephen Gray set up an intriguing experiment

that he called the Hanging Boy.

He suspended an orphan from silken ropes

and put a small electric charge on the boy's body.

I'm going to try and recreate the experiment

with static electricity and gold foil.

But we couldn't get our hands on an actual orphan

so we're using Freya here.

You alright, Freya?

Yup.

When the static electricity generator is switched on

electricity begins to flow through the child

and then something magical begins to happen.

Our child builds up a positive charge

and one side of the gold leaf becomes negatively charged

and opposites attract.

The experiment showed that electricity could pass

through some things, little kids, and not other things,

like silk, and that led them to divide the world

into two categories.

Conductors, things like kids and copper,

and insulators, things like silk and glass.

So if we're thinking about lightning,

how does the air change from an insulator

into such an incredibly dramatic conductor?

The high voltage lab at the University of Canterbury

is the perfect place to find out.

This device can simulate lightning.

Perfect for me to find out what it's like

to be hit by lightning.

Paul Ager is in charge of this million volt machine.

What I'll get you to do, Nigel,

is to activate this button here on the count of three.

And that will initiate our lightning

impulse across the spheres.

Okay, so I'm just bringing up the voltage now.

So how much on there now?

A million volts ready to go.

Okay on three two one.

(lightning cracks)

The thunder created by our lightning bolt

is deafening, but the bolt itself is too fast to see.

I still want to find out how the lightning turns air

into a conductor.

So we've brought in this little puppy.

The Phantom V642 which shoots in super slow motion

so that you can see things like this and this and this.

And hopefully lightning traveling through the air.

Three two one.

(lightning cracks)

But we've got a major problem with the new camera.

And the problem is science's fault.

Dead.

Basically every time we fire the lightning bolt,

what it does, is it changes all the

electrical charges in the room and the camera's

super sensitive so it just dies every time.

So now we've got two scientists working away on a plan B

and a plan C, we just stand here until

they tell us to do something.

This'll be interesting to see if it works.

They're solution is to wrap the camera up

in a Faraday suit, a mesh cloth that

can block electric fields.

But will the science work?

Okay.

Three two one.

(lightning cracks)

And now we can observe the lightning

at five hundred times slower than normal, and even then,

it's all over in a second.

Oh wow, what is happening there then

is the electrons and the air molecules separating

and then reestablishing, creating the plasma rack

between the two.

The lightning wants to get from the top sphere

to the bottom sphere.

As the negative charge in a cloud travels,

it heats the air, creating a channel for the lightning

to travel through.

At two and a half thousand times slower

we can see the channel form,

but there's not a camera in the world that can capture

the lightning traveling through the channel.

But when lightning travels further

we can see this cooking of the air.

It happens quite slowly, relatively speaking,

taking hundreds of milliseconds.

And when the channel's formed, the lightning's

discharged in a few blinding microseconds.

So if the awesome power of a lightning bolt

can heat air to 50,000 degrees,

what would it do if it hit me?

Have you ever wondered what it would be like

to be struck by lightning?

Well I have, so I've decided to find out,

beginning with this thing,

a Leyden Jar, it was invented about 200 years ago

and it's kind of like lightning in a bottle.

But the bloke who invented it wasn't sure

that it was a good idea.

In fact he wrote to a friend of his,

and he said and I quote,

I wish to advise you of a new but terrible experiment

I urge you on no account to personally attempt.

I received a shock to my right hand of such violence

that my whole body was shaken, as if by lightning.

In short, I thought that I was done for.

Now clearly with a build up like that,

I have to touch it, don't I?

Oh my god!

That's quite unpleasant.

That was just a small dose of lightning,

but why exactly was it so painful?

Understanding why electricity's dangerous,

really mean understands Ohm's Law,

which is a fairly complicated relationship

between resistance, amps, and volts.

But here's the guts of it for normal people.

Amps are the really dangerous part,

because amps are the part that will burn you

and stop your heart.

But volts push the amps along.

So this looks quite spectacular

because it's really high voltage,

but it's very low amps.

So when I put it into my potato,

nothing really happens.

But I'm wondering, if I put lots and lots of amps

into that potato what might happen then?

Because we're dramatically increasing the amps

things are now very dangerous.

And remember the Faraday suit we wrapped our camera in?

Well we're using a bigger version, a Faraday cage,

to hopefully keep our camera man alive.

So the voltage is the same as before

but we've increased the amps from virtually nothing

to 3,000.

Mind you, that's only a tenth of the amps

found in your average lightning bolt.

Have you ever zapped a potato before?

Nope, we've never zapped a potato.

It's uncharted territory for this lab.

Three two one.

(lightning cracks)

I can't understand why

we've never blown a potato up before.

(laughing)

We should've done this already.

With the increased amps the potato stood no chance.

Sausage this time, more like people.

Three two one.

(lightning cracks)

It's a banger.

(laughing)

The one thing that actually seems to have worked

really well is the thing that's most like

an actual person.

It's all very well to make a sausage explode

in a blast chamber at a high voltage laboratory.

But what impact does electricity have on an actual

human being?

The sausage was blasted with 3,000 amps.

But we're giving our subject just five milliamps

supplied by three triple A batteries.

It's well below the 100 milliamps

considered lethal to a human.

Renowned Chef Michael Van de Elzen

is used to operating under pressure.

But what effect will electric shocks

have on his performance?

So I'm gonna make a broccoli tart.

So first up I'm gonna take an egg.

So I want to separate the white from the yolk.

So just run the white into a bowl.

Oh jesus christ.

(laughing)

let's shake the shells out, and we continue on.

The brain sends messages 'round the body

using electric current.

So when external electricity enters the body

it disrupts those signals, short circuiting them,

and the usual result is muscles contracting

in an uncontrollable manner.

(laughing)

Can we swap places?

The electric shock just takes over.

It just makes you spasm and just add all the ingredients

into a bowl.

So now we just take our walnut dressing.

Whoa!

(laughing)

Wow, that's pretty hard to make something tidy I'll tell ya.

Look at that.

I couldn't have placed it any better if I tried.

(laughing)

So what we've been able to conclusively demonstrate

is that even the small electric shock that you get

from three triple A batteries

makes it incredibly difficult for your body to function.

But what if it was even bigger?

(lightning cracks)

A lightning bolt is 60 million times stronger

than that triple A shock.

If I want to survive being struck by lightning

I'm going to need some help.

And maybe the answer lies in the material

that allowed our slow motion camera to keep working

or the cage that protected our camera man.

It's called a Faraday cage or Faraday suit

and it works by channeling electricity.

The voltage is constant across the exterior

but no current is allowed onto the interior.

And you're saying this thing, which stopped

our camera from shutting down with the lightning bolt,

if I'm wearing this, I'm not gonna die

when we do the lightning arc.

That's correct.

So you wouldn't be offended if we just did

a couple more things to test out this

Faraday principle thing first before I climb up

into the lightning arc?

No problem at all Nigel.

Good.

I wouldn't say that I was scared to be hit by lightning

wearing only that suit, but what about if we tried out

the principle in something a bit more like the cage.

So here's my idea, which is either complete genius

or utterly stupid.

But if the lightning strikes my car,

then it should act just like my Faraday suit

and channel all of that current around the outside

and leave me safe on the inside.

This experiment is incredibly dangerous,

and with my life at risk, my posse of scientists

are being extra thorough to ensure I survive.

So it turns out that none of the camera operators

actually want to sit in the car with me,

so I'm having to do some of it myself

by setting one up in the corner.

But I'm sure it will all go very well.

So far it seems pretty much set up.

I reckon let's start with 100,000 volts

and if I'm still alive, let's go

the full million after that.

I'll see you on the other side.

Good on you, Nigel.

Now you might be thinking that it's the car tires

that'll save me, but it's not.

A lightning bolt is so powerful it'll jump 'round the tires

straight into the earth.

What will hopefully keep me alive

is the theory of the Faraday cage.

The lethal lightning bolt will run 'round

the edges of the car into the ground,

and I'll emerge happy and alive.

The thing that makes me wonder a little bit

is when they say they've never done this before.

So this is the first time they've done this.

A little bit anxiety provoking.

Okay, Nigel.

10 nine eight

seven six five

four three two one.

(lightning sizzles)

The first 100,000 volt arc is a test,

but a potentially lethal test nevertheless.

It's quite an eerie experience to sit in a car

and feel it, actually hear that sort of

bzzt, high voltage stuff, knowing that it's right there.

But I'm in here happily, so I think thus far

Faraday is completely right.

But the car did suffer some serious paint meltdown.

I'm somewhat concerned that when we increase the power

by 1,000% that it'll be more than

the paint that gets damaged.

I can't stop thinking about what the lightning

did to that poor sausage.

Is that gonna happen to me?

10 nine eight

seven six five

four three two one.

(lightning cracks)

(laughing)

One million volts centimeters from my head.

This is the most dangerous thing I've ever done in a car.

And now it's time to do it again, without the car.

I survived being hit by lightning

when I used my car as a Faraday cage.

But what effect will lightning have on me

without any protection at all?

Three two one.

(lightning cracks)

And when I say me, I mean this me.

We're gonna hit dummy Nigel with a 100,000 volt

continuous lightning arc.

He's dressed to impress in a spiffy nylon tracksuit.

Now obviously the human body

has its own conductive properties,

which might be slightly different to a mannequin.

But we've cunningly rigged up a number of contraptions,

wires, and sticky tape, to make it kind of,

at the very least me shaped.

(lightning humming)

It's time to draw a line in the sand.

I think science is trying to tell me something.

I think it's saying that deliberately setting out

to get struck by lightning is a really really dumb idea.

(lightning humming)

So having just witnessed this, it has somewhat

shaken my confidence about the whole experiment

and the Faraday suit thing, because I'm not sure

that something that looks like painter's overalls

is gonna save me from this.

My face is on fire.

So now we're going to do exactly the same thing

except this time, it will be me.

And I'm putting my faith in a theory

that's about 200 years old.

Good god.

I can no longer put off the inevitable.

It's time to repeat the experiment, but this time

instead of a mannequin in a tracksuit

it's me in a Faraday suit.

The whole suit is threaded through with a metallic weave

which supposedly will keep me alive.

Okay, and now your cap.

Okay is that comfortable, do you need to adjust that?

Put the hood up.

So I don't look quite as Iron Man as I was hoping.

And the other thing is that usually in these situations

I say to myself, well what's the worst that could happen

but actually now this little voice comes back

and it says well your suit could fuse,

you could have a cardiac arrest, and burst into flames.

So should we go and see what happens?

Let's go have a look.

There's time for one last safety check.

Okay team we're gonna do the

hazard identification assessment prior to going ahead.

So obviously we've got high voltage supplies

present within this demonstration.

And that would be Nigel, he is our high voltage supply.

He's gonna be our 70,000 volt potential

so he is the risk.

We need to maintain a safe distance from him.

And that's you know, via the demarkation

which we've set on the floor here.

With the microphone, obviously, a nice big

conductive rod, we don't want that anywhere near Nigel.

Okay, that's it, thanks team.

10,000 volts, 20,000.

So there comes a time when you have your theory

but you must put it to the test.

So if Faraday was right, this should look great.

If he was wrong, then I will die.

60,000, 70,000, 80,000,

90,000, 100,000 volts.

So I'm now tingling

and I'm about to see if Faraday really was a genius

or he was completely wrong.

(dramatic orchestra music)

This is about 1% of the strength of a lightning bolt.

But it's still enough to give me lethal wounds

and to stop my heart beating.

Turns out that...

Turns out, oh that's my glowing red finger.

Turns out that Faraday was actually a genius.

There's 100,000 volt surrounding me,

flowing over the suit, it plays havoc

with the electronics of the microphone.

Still, if that's the worst thing that happens to me

I'm not gonna complain.

The basic principle here is that

all that electricity flows around the outside

through my Faraday suit, leaving this vacuum

of quite pleasant relaxedness inside.

So without it, I'd be dead.

But when I'm inside it, I can literally juggle lightning.

It's quite cool.

(lightning cracks)

So I didn't get hit by actual lightning.

That would be actual stupid.

But I'd settle for the tingle of 100,000 volts

and a Faraday suit over being hit by real lightning any day.

(lightning sizzles)

(soft dreamy music)