Questions tagged [lightning]
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Is this argument about sharp and blunt lightning rod right?
Actually I came to know that sharp lightning rods are not sensitive to the weak electric field comparing to blunt lightning rods. Resistance will resist the formation of field on the rod. So, we know ...
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What causes the behavior of this lightning flash?
I saw a "strange" behavior in the recording made by an ultrafast video camera. We can see a lightning flash growing dim, the growing bright a few times before it's gone. How can this happen? ...
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If lightning is caused by ionisation of air, why does it only last briefly?
I'm comparing lightning and fire - both are related to ionisation of air but lightning happens so fast in a blink of an eye while fire goes on until it runs out of fuel. My question is: despite being ...
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Does a tower bell ringing prevent thunderstorms?
Introduction
This is the beginning of an apparently physics-unrelated question, which involves 1700-1800 Italian law, atmospheric processes, sound waves propagating through fluid and clouds, and ...
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Dielectric breakdown voltage of air vs electric field during a thunderstorm
The dielectric strength of air (ie. the maximum electric field that the material can withstand under ideal conditions without undergoing electrical breakdown and becoming electrically conductive) is 3 ...
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Danger to swimmer from lightning?
Having been swimming a few times recently when a thunderstorm developed, I've started wondering what the actual dangers are (please note - I'm more interested in this from a science perspective; I get ...
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Effect of one lightning on its consecutive lightning
When lightning strikes several times in one area, I wonder if the first lightning strike affects the next lightning. For example, when lightning strikes a point $A$, does the next lightning have a ...
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Why does lightning strike objects on the ground or the ground itself?
From my keen observation the water vapor in the cloud turns into ice particulate and bumps into each other so there is region with more electrons than the rest of the cloud, but lightning should form ...
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Mechanism of structure of atmospheric lightning
Lightning is a natural atmospheric phenomenon.From early childhood years we all are familiar with the concept of lightning.But recently,from a website named Z T RESEARCH,i came across the fact that ...
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What makes the speed of lightning different to the speed of light?
The difference between light and lightning, their different speeds and a reason why the speeds differ
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How observable is the "macroscopic" dark matter candidate?
I was recently introduced to the dark matter candidate known as "macros," which are theoretically made up of macroscopic clumps of matter rather than of an elementary particle. These ...
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Why the lightening flash happens from the ground up?
In a cloud-to-ground lightening, once a step leader meets a positive streamer, there is an electric discharge from the cloud to the ground. I understand that we can't see the electrons moving ...
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How does the Extreme Heat of a Lightning Bolt not Kill Anyone?
Ok so, according to various different online sources, a single bolt of lightning is capable of raising the temperature of the air it rips through to... ummmmm...
50,000 degrees Fahrenheit?
What? That'...
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Energy of each electron in a lightning bolt
I have read that lightning bolts have a difference of potential of 300 Mega Volts. Does it mean that the electrons in the cloud have an energy of 300MeV each? I found that astonishing since that ...
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If the earth is negatively charged why is lightning striking it?
So, as far as I know, the Earth is negatively charged, and there are such things as lightning strikes which travel from clouds to the Earth- that would mean the clouds in a thunderstorm are positively ...
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Would electricity be able to make a gamma ray?
I read that lightning creates gamma rays, but i'm not sure if it would be possible to have a capacitor that powerful to make a gamma ray.
If this is possible, how efficient would such a process be?
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Why doesn't lightning stop when it starts raining?
According to my understanding, lightning happens because the clouds get charged due to friction from the moving clouds and the ground gets polarized by the nearby charged clouds. And the two opposite ...
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Lightning's tendency to find a tall point on the ground
Is lightning's tendency to connect to a high point on the ground due to probability in the colloquial sense, or is there some sort of electromagnetic stream of "information" exchanged ...
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Does electric current still remain a scalar quantity even while talking about electric arcs/ discharge?
Current is said to be a scalar quantity because it's direction is determined by the direction of the wire/conductor. But in certain cases electrical currents flow through some materials which are ...
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Why do lightnings generated by a tesla coil also move upwards?
I was recently watching some videos of Tesla coils, and the behavior of the rays caught my attention. In the picture below, you can see how the coil is emitting lightnings, some of them towards the ...
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Is there a small spark every time a switch is closed to engage a circuit?
Suppose we have a simple circuit with a resistor $R$ connected to a DC voltage source $V_{\text{batt}}$. The circuit can be enabled or disabled by a switch. The dielectric breakdown of air is $E_{\...
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Lightning, why do you need to wait for the flash to reach you?
Why would a person about to be struck by lightning have to "wait" for the actual flash to reach them before getting hit?
As the electric field exists regardless of whether or not the charge ...
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Why does the electricity go off during a thunderstorm? [closed]
I don't see a convincing reason why electricity should go off during a thunderstorm. I am not talking about a transformer blowing off and causing a permanent power cut, but a temporary one, lasting ...
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Why does moderately distant lightning sound the way it does: relatively quiet high pitched thunder first, and then much louder low pitched thunder?
Why does thunder, that is heard about five or ten seconds after the lightning is seen, start as relatively quiet high pitched 'crackling' thunder which is, about five or ten seconds later than that, ...
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Electrical arc transmission in welding
Can anyone explain the physics behind this picture? To give you a little background it is a photo from insta gram no copyright infringement intended here. The photo is a welding tig torch there is a ...
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Can vacuum breakdown occur from a positively charged surface?
Against a sufficiently large voltage, resistance is futile.
Although the vacuum is a very good insulator, electrical breakdown can occur even in a perfect vacuum in the presence of a very strong ...
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Why is Earth's atmosphere made almost entirely of $\rm N_2$ and $\rm O_2$ molecules rather than any of the nitrogen oxides?
I assume the formation of $\rm N_2$ and $\rm O_2$ molecules is energetically favorable compared with N2O, NO, and NO2, etc., but are there some more intuitive arguments regarding the bonding and ...
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Can lightning be used as a source of energy? [duplicate]
Is it possible to use lightning or thunder as a source of energy, with the help of dielectric breakdown and splitting?
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Why does lightning strike lightning rods sometimes?
I watched some videos and read a lot of posts mentioned that pointy shaped objects create denser electric field than other objects (especially spherical ones), that's why people use pointy and ...
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What is the difference between electric spark and electric arc?
In my student book they separate these two and indicate that sparks need high voltage to occur while arcs need low voltage with normal or low pressure and electric arcs CAN come with heat and bright ...
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Why the Earth isn't negatively charged? [duplicate]
As electricity is transferred in earth by earthing and lightning, why it does not become negatively charged?
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The minimum electric field for corona discharge at atmospheric pressure is $3\times10^6\,{\rm V/m}$. How is this calculated?
I saw this number on Wikipedia and other videos, but the calculation part is no where to be seen. Can someone explain how this value is calculated?
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Can the arc from a Tesla coil or plasma from a high powered plasma orb be redirected with an electromagnet?
So I was wondering if you could use electromagnets to redirect the electric arcs created by a Tesla coil or the plasma arcs from a high powered plasma ball so you can control the direction it is going....
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What causes the noise when you get an electric shock?
When we get a minor static electric shock, we often hear a noise associated with the shock.
Or for example, when you swat a fly with a zapper, you can hear a noise from the electric transfer.
What ...
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Arc discharge and dielectric breakdown - are these the same phenomena?
Arc discharge and dielectric breakdown - are these the same phenomena?
With the subtle distinction, arc discharge generally occurs in the gaseous state and dielectric breakdown in condensed matter.
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How much energy is transferred to a human hit by lightning?
Wikipedia tells me that a bolt of lightning releases roughly 1 GJ of energy, but I'm guessing that's along the entire length of the bolt and that most of it is dissipated as heat and light to the ...
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How unsafe is lightning? [closed]
Given our extensive use of wireless/wired technology (mobile phones, chargers, etc.), how dangerous is it to use these amidst a thunderstorm? Is it dangerous enough to consider avoiding? Is there a ...
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The Cause of lightning and charge distribution in clouds
I was going through this video about lightning and I couldn't understand some points .
1: What caused the water molecules in ice crystals to be arranged in that specific pattern i.e. having positive ...
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Colour of lightning
I thought the excitation of nitrogen leads to blue lightning but I am seeing a lot of yellow lightning on the Internet https://youtu.be/nbG5g5Elq2M
https://youtu.be/MRQUvjMY8wI
What is the explanation?...
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Why the spark in a lighter is blue and can it be white as a lightning is?
Is lightning white due to moving electrons or nearby nitrogen,oxigen and water vapour atoms and can a simple lighter spark glow white?
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Why does current flow through the ground rod if lightning strikes the breaker box?
In normal functioning of household power supply, the current flows through the hot and the neutral wire. Why does it not take the path of the ground rod, even when the ground rod, neutral wire and the ...
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Is this a correct way of finding magnetic field of a magnet created with Wasilewski's method?
$\quad$ Wasilewski's method (Or the method that could be seen in Dr Stone episode 9) consists of piece of iron being struck by a lightning, which then magnetises it. Let's say, we have a cylindrical ...
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Would rubber shoes offer any form of protection against cloud-to-ground lightning strikes?
I was reading an article from abcnews about Why so many people survive being struck by lightning. Later in the article it says the following:
But direct strikes make up only a minuscule portion of ...
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Why isn't thunder muted or softened by rain drops?
I watched a documentary showing how NASA applied water droplets to absorb the huge amount of sound energy when the rocket is ignited at launch. So, how come billions of rain drops don't seem to mute ...
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Why do my lights become brighter during a thunderstorm?
Today, during a thunderstorm, the lamps in the room suddenly flickered and then gradually became brighter in less than a second. The lamps remained brighter than normal for a few seconds before ...
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What will happen when lightning strikes a zeppelin?
I know airplanes have an aluminium outer body that lets lightning just slide through the outer surface and not causing much damage. But what will happen in the case of a zepplin?
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Charge separation in clouds: How?
Clouds contain millions and millions of water droplets and ice
particles suspended in the air. As the process of evaporation and
condensation occurs, these droplets collide with other moisture ...
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Is there some general limit on temperature of electric arc?
You can find that max. temperature of electric arc is ~20 000 K (e.g. in lightning), but why?
I assume temperature of electric arc is given by balance between input power (current denisty and voltage) ...
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Is lightning possible/visible in vacuum or not?
I do understand that lightning is caused by electrons flowing, between two electrically charged regions in the air or the ground, thus causing electrostatic discharge and equalization.
https://en....
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Does Low Temperature Attract Negatively Charged Particles?
I'm studying the effects of temperature in producing electricity like in clouds that produces lightning. Since dark clouds during a thunderstorm is below freezing point, it attracts negatively charged ...
