Lightning From Cloudless Sky Kills Man

I find it absolutely fascinating. And I LOVE lightning/thunderstorms.:D
 
Last edited:
i confused lighting is a form of electricity which has to do with electrons flowing to positive charges for it to be positively charged it would have to be form from protons and protons don't just float away from the nucleus of an atom very often so i just don't see how enough free protons could gather to create such a stroke
 
sandy said:
I find it absolutely fascinating. And I LOVE lightening/thunderstorms.:D
Click to expand...

me too,the only good thing about the rainy season here is we get sheet lightening which covers the whole sky...beautiful.
 
pjdude1219 said:
i confused lighting is a form of electricity which has to do with electrons flowing to positive charges for it to be positively charged it would have to be form from protons and protons don't just float away from the nucleus of an atom very often so i just don't see how enough free protons could gather to create such a stroke
Click to expand...

Incorrect view. It's not protons, as such, but positively charged ions. Big difference. ;)
 
sandy said:
1243176-lg.jpg


http://gallery.photo.net/photo/1243176-lg.jpg
Click to expand...


that one is fecking awesome..

dammit,i had a picture of lightning within the crater of an active volcano...cant find it now.
 
sandy said:
I find it absolutely fascinating. And I LOVE lightning/thunderstorms.:D
Click to expand...

Are you aware that 2/3 of all lightning shoots UP from the Earth to the sky? That's why when most people who are "struck" by lightning feel it several seconds before they are zapped... it's the ground preparing to discharge.

~String
 
Yes. I just forget sometimes and (incorrectly) associate it with thunder and storms. :rolleyes: Old childhood thinking is sometimes hard to
unlearn/forget--especially when you've been out of the science arena for years.

And yes, isn't that picture awesome?:xctd:

Here are more of my faves:

http://www.voidix.com/images/lightning5.jpg
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/150599main_lightning_photo.jpg
http://earth.rice.edu/mtpe/atmo/atmosphere/topics/lightning.jpg

http://smh.com.au/ffximage/2005/11/01/lightning_wideweb__430x312.jpg
http://www.lightningsmiths.com/lightning_gallery_02/lightning_010.jpg

http://www.bluesfear.com/images/tutorials/lightning_final.jpg
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0007/lightning_kpno.jpg
http://www.filetransit.com/images/s...08ebf_Lightning_and_Tornadoes_Screensaver.jpg

Sorry about posting so many. I got so excited looking at these again, I had to take a break. Seriously. LOL!
 
Last edited:
sandy said:
I find it absolutely fascinating. And I LOVE lightning/thunderstorms.:D
Click to expand...

Lightning comes from the god Zeus when he is angry, hence clouds are unnecessary.

He is glad you like them, though.
 
Are you aware that 2/3 of all lightning shoots UP from the Earth to the sky? That's why when most people who are "struck" by lightning feel it several seconds before they are zapped... it's the ground preparing to discharge.
Click to expand...

My understanding is that the power flow is still, for the most part, from sky to earth. The clouds are the dynamo building up the huge charge.
The feeling that people get (hair standing on end on the back of neck, etc...) is caused by the streamer that reaches up from the ground several meters in order to meet the streamers coming down from the clouds. When these two meet, wham, lightning. One streamer after another discharges itself through this successful connection to ground.

(By the way, there is generally more than one upward reaching streamer in the area. But, generally, only one is successful in touching the downward reaching streamer. There are pictures of these streamers out there.)
 
One time i saw a tree split in half by lightning, the tree is still growing, i can still picture the event.
 
invert_nexus said:
My understanding is that the power flow is still, for the most part, from sky to earth. The clouds are the dynamo building up the huge charge.
The feeling that people get (hair standing on end on the back of neck, etc...) is caused by the streamer that reaches up from the ground several meters in order to meet the streamers coming down from the clouds. When these two meet, wham, lightning. One streamer after another discharges itself through this successful connection to ground.

(By the way, there is generally more than one upward reaching streamer in the area. But, generally, only one is successful in touching the downward reaching streamer. There are pictures of these streamers out there.)
Click to expand...

Yes, that's correct. The "streamers" are often visible in the dark and are what sailors called "St. Elmo's Fire."

When contact is made between the first streamers, the next thing that happens is called a "stepped leader." It's the charged and glowing ionic path that established the connection for the main discharge which quickly follows. Stepped leaders are very often visible in many photographs - they are the relatively weak jagged lines often seen on the fringes of a main strike.
 
Read-Only said:
i confused lighting is a form of electricity which has to do with electrons flowing to positive charges for it to be positively charged it would have to be form from protons and protons don't just float away from the nucleus of an atom very often so i just don't see how enough free protons could gather to create such a stroke
Click to expand...
Incorrect view. It's not protons, as such, but positively charged ions. Big difference. ;)
Click to expand...
Also, these ions need not move, per se. If the electrons move (which they can do easily), it's essentially the same thing as a positive charge moving the opposite direction. For this reason, when electrical current flows, the direction of the current is actually opposite the movement of the electrons.


superstring99 said:
Are you aware that 2/3 of all lightning shoots UP from the Earth to the sky? That's why when most people who are "struck" by lightning feel it several seconds before they are zapped... it's the ground preparing to discharge.
Click to expand...
Not quite. A small percentage of lightning goes from ground to cloud, but most doesn't. Almost always, the electrons group together at the bottom of the cloud, inducing a positive charge on the ground. Since electrons are the charge carriers, the electrons actually move toward the induced positive charge.

The reason people can feel it beforehand has nothing to do with which way the lighting goes. They are simply feeling the induced positive charge.
 
invert nexus said:
My understanding is that the power flow is still, for the most part, from sky to earth.
Click to expand...
Except that power is a scalar quantity so it doesn't flow. You probably meant that the charge carriers still flow from sky to earth.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top