Just curiosity.

Spent a week in the cold frozen north. Single Fahrenheit digits (above and
below zero) outside, snow on the ground, 70 degrees inside ­ dry air.  Was
able to generate some pretty decent lightning simulations walking around and
especially stripping a bed that had some sort of fuzzy (no doubt synthetic
material) blanket.  While stripping the bed, I was listening to a podcast on
an iPhone, through wired earbuds.  I could hear the discharges through the
earbuds. That was some sort of interference, but not the question of
interest here. What was interesting is that the bigger sparks not only
zapped where I made contact (typically hands) but also from the earbuds to
my inner ear (ouch)!  That¹s not what I said, but close enough.

The iPhone was in a leather pouch suspended from by belt. The hook around
the belt was metal, the belt was leather, and there were (denim cotton)
pants between the hook on the inside of the belt and my skin.  To my
understanding, the iPhone and earbuds should have been at near or the same
potential I was, and even if not, it was certainly no sort of ground ­
completely isolated from anything except me.

So the question is why was there such a potential difference between iPhone
and earbuds and me that my ears were zapped?

Ken Javor
Phone: (256) 650-5261


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