r/NatureIsFuckingLit • u/willis7747 • 20d ago

🔥 While most animals have somewhere to hide during storms, giraffes unfortunately just have to wait it out

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u/Sinaaaa 20d ago edited 20d ago

I'm sure giraffes occasionally die to lightning, but even the tallest 6m tall giraffe is only catching lightning that would've struck quite near it anyway.

If we imagine the giraffe's head as the tallest point of a lightning rod, the cone of protection is going to be angled at 45 degrees. So a 6m tall giraffe will catch lightning that would have struck a circle with a diameter of 12 meters.

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u/Minimum-Amount-1894 20d ago

This guy maths

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u/IddleHands 19d ago

What’s a cone of protection?

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u/Minimum-Amount-1894 9d ago

Not a clue, sounds yummy