h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

everyone knows that lightening tends to strike tall objects, so what do giraffes do in a thunderstorm? in said thunderstorm should one avoid standing beneath a giraffe, as one avoids standing beneath a tall tree?

I don't know what giraffes do in a lightning storm, but I think it would be good advice not to stand under one. You run the danger of being simultaneously electrocuted and kicked to death. The safest thing to do in a lightning storm is to keep away from tall objects which might be struck, and to crouch down so that you yourself are not a tall object. Lying on the ground is not recommended, because if something nearby is struck, the current will spread out from it in all directions along the surface of the ground and may flow through you. If you must lie down, lie so that your body lies along a circle with the nearest tall object at the centre of the circle.

Could you explain to me more about why you shouldn't lie down?

When lightning strikes a tall object such as a tree, it travels down the tree to the ground. But it doesn't just stop at the base of the tree. The electricity spreads out from the base of the tree in an expanding hemisphere (the flat part being the surface of the ground). As it spreads out, it become more "diluted" until eventually it is so spread out that it is said to have reached earth.

If you happen to be lying on the ground and your head and feet are lined up with the tree (a line through your head and your feet points at the tree), then the electricity will spread out through you, entering at one end and leaving at the other. Depending on how close to the tree you are, you may or not be injured.

If you lie so that all parts of your body are the same distance from the tree, then the electricity will not spread out through you, so you will not be injured. If you crouch with your feet together, making a single point of contact with the ground, you are less likely again to be injured.

Giraffes evolved to reach the leaves near the tops of trees so it stands to reason that trees are evolving to be taller than giraffes - so giraffes aren't the tallest point in the bush?

I think they would be well advised to keep their heads down, even so.

On a related subject, did you know that lightning strike is one of the biggest non-disease causes of death in Lesotho. Perhaps they should import some giraffe for safety?

Apparently every year a couple of people are killed by lightening in Central Park, perhaps they could do with some there too.

Well, giraffes aren't the tallest point on the savannah. But they are still tall enough to be in danger. But I suppose they bend their heads down. They seem rather limb, I once saw one putting it's head into a bus and looking around. I thought their necks were too stiff to do that.

Wouldn't Lesotho be a bit cold for giraffes? - unless they could be made to wear horse blankets.
[giraffe is one of my favourite words - from the Arabic zarafah] There's a huge debate (which I don't really understand) among the evolutionists on why giraffes have long necks - possibly to display/fight with?

Yeah, that's a thing I don't like about evolution. The giraffe was such a good example of it, and now it seems that might have been wrong. Along with the hippo/bird thing and a lot of other things.

To be boring.. Ahem...
Giraffes cannot keep their heads down for any amount of time as they cannot breathe properly when their head are below thier bodies...making drinking a bleeding dangerous prospect for them.

Lightening will travel to the nearest highest point. So giraffes are safer if they are near (relatively) to a tree bigger than them....though in the sahvannah this is rare. But this is not necessarily a rule of thumb for them to follow as thunderstorms move about...
*takes BIG breath*

As for the evolution thing. It is the attractiveness/usefulness correlation that is important. If the feature under discussion...in this case a giraffes neck...were inherently useless thing, then it would not have become an 'attractive' feature...or at least the long necked aminals would have dies before breeding age....and so could not have become a facor in mate choice. etc etc etc

Sorry, I shall stop now. My brain is hurting...

*pant gasp splutter....goes for a lie down*

Well, why haven't giraffes just started usings straws then?

Where do you get straws that long???

You can put several together. Or I'm sure you could make a market out of straws for giraffes. Claim it's a charitable organisation that saves giraffes, then you don't have to pay tax.

But the lightning thing is interesting. Do you think that after a thunderstorm you can just drive around the savannah and you'll every now and then come across a barbequed giraffe stil standing? Then you can just cut off a few pieces and eat them.

Slightly off topic but

Does anyone know why giraffes have such long legs?






































Because, if they were any shorter, they wouldn't reach the ground.
Boom, boom!!



Sorry

And the other thing about those straws is....how would the giraffes get them to their lips....After all, don't their knees go the wrong way? And how do you handle straws with split hooves??????

As to the legs question, I think it's a question of mechanics...they have to balance out the neck somehow. And though they have to splay out their legs when drinking...but if the legs were any shorter, they would have to stand VERY far from water to get a drink...thereby being even more off blance than they are now.

As it is, the long legs probably came first....though that arguement is a lot like the chicken and the egg...

Well, what is the ancestry of the giraffe? If it is some sort of gazelle that is probably where the long legs came from. But it's true, it needs long legs like a crane also need some firm grounding. Or it would just tip over probably.

Alright, being sensible about it. They must have had longish legs to strat with...and the leg and neck length likely increased at the same rate as the long leg/short neck and vice versa varients died due to inability to feed/drink/run away.
This I think, brings me back to one of the original questions....WHY?
Not a clue....though it does give them a sorce of food that is unlikely to be challenged by anything other than heffalumps......

speaking of giraffes:

Q) why is a giraffe's neck so long?








A) because if it was any shorter it would reach its head.