There is an urban legend that using a mobile phone during a storm is highly perilous, as the device could attract electric shocks. Xiaomi sought to unravel this mystery by investigating the veracity of this claim. To achieve this, they conducted an experiment where they exposed one of their mobile phones to electric discharges. The results were quite conclusive.
Employing a specialized wire from Tesla, Xiaomi's experts carried out this
examination. However, they strongly cautioned against attempting a similar
experiment at home. Subsequently, they proceeded to subject the phone to
direct exposure to electric discharges in various usage scenarios, such as
during a call or while playing a video. As evident in the video below, the
mobile phone remained undamaged. Yet, does this imply it's safe to use during
an actual storm?
Undoubtedly, at some point, amidst a severe storm, you may have heard claims
that employing a mobile phone can be perilous due to its potential to attract
electric discharges. In an endeavor to ascertain whether storms could indeed
impact phone usage, Xiaomi subjected one of their phones to lightning strikes
generated by a Tesla coil. Please refrain from attempting this experiment at
home, as it poses significant danger.
The protagonist of the experiment is the Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G, which, as you can see in the video, continues to function normally when hit by those rays. There is no problem when using the phone to watch videos during a storm. There is also no risk when the phone is in the middle of a phone call; the signal is not affected at any time.
As the audio commentary in the video demonstrates, this test confirms that the storm does not affect smartphone use. Be careful, this clarification is very important; it only refers to smartphones. The urban legend comes from the possibility that old landline phones can be dangerous when lightning strikes.
As the video shot by Xiaomi tells us, lightning emits electromagnetic pulses with a wide range of frequencies, from very low to high, mainly low. Mobile phone signals belong to high frequencies, so the chances of being affected by lightning are very low because they mainly occur at different frequency levels.
The puzzle is solved; you can use your smartphone during a storm. You saw it in the video; the device is not affected while playing videos or receiving a phone call. Without a doubt, we have to thank Xiaomi for conducting this very useful experiment.
