Q.The safest way to protect yourself from lightening is to be inside a car. Justify.

[!TLDR] A car's metal body acts as a hollow conductor (a Faraday cage); the field inside any hollow conductor is always exactly zero, shielding the occupants. [!ANSWER] …

Property 1 of a conductor under electrostatic conditions (section 8.7.1) is that the field inside its interior is ALWAYS exactly zero. A car's outer metal body forms a closed, hollow conducting shell around its occupants, so it acts as an electrostatic shield -- exactly the FARADAY CAGE principle discussed explicitly in this chapter's 'Electrostatic Shielding' note. Even if lightning strikes the car directly, the resulting charge redistributes itself entirely over the car's OUTER surface (property 3: a conductor's interior carries no charge), leaving the field inside the passenger cabin at zero -- the same reasoning that keeps sensitive equipment safe inside a hollow conducting shield, or an MRI room's Fa …

Apply the conductor property that the field inside a hollow conductor is always zero (el …

A common misconception is to think the car's rubber tyres are what protect the occupants (by insulating the car from the ground) -- the real protection is the metal BO …