Questions tagged [lightning]
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Feynman Lectures - 100V/m in the air
Feynman suggests that:
There is a vertical electric field E of 100 volts/m in the air.
This voltage is in part maintained through the action of thunderstorms. The highest part of our atmosphere has ...
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Do flourescent tube lights create magnetic fields like other conductors?
So, does every electron flow also have a corresponding magnetic field to go along with it, or is magnetic fields only a property of solid metal conductors?
Also, what about lightning?
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About lightning and lightning conductor
Lightning not only strikes on a lightning conductor installed on the building... Lightning can strike anywhere on the surface roof of the building even though that building has installed a lightning ...
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Why are the base of lightning clouds negatively charged?
In elementary explanations of lightning, it's generally stated that the clouds are negatively charged, the Earth is positively charged, and lightning is a discharge between the two. E.g. this source ...
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Should we expect lightning-like phenomena as matter enters the accretion disk of a black hole?
As matter enters the accretion disk it will rapidly turn into superheated plasma. I would expect this to coincide with lightning-like phenomena due to the electric potential difference between this ...
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PBR: Why conductors have tinted specular?
So, as I know when light beam falls on some surface it reflect (specular) and refract (diffuse).
Refracted part will interact with material's molecules and it can lose all energy or fly back out of ...
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Lightning strike pressure on object [closed]
I am doing research on the behavior of lightning strikes and how they affect objects they hit. I have found this article that gives some information about lightning, like speed, length, temperature, ...
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Where do the electrons in a lightning bolt come from?
Where do the electrons in a lightning bolt come from?
There are problems with the explanations given up to at least two years ago.
The explanation that the electrons come from inside the thunder cloud ...
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Why does positive cloud-to-ground lightning have no branches?
I have been learning about the physics of lightning lately. Several sources (for example, the book Lightning: Physics and Effects by Vladimir A. Rakov and Martin A. Uman) state that positive cloud-to-...
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Can you deduce how far lightning struck from you?
This is just a fun with physics type of question. Seeing that both the speed of sound (In air) and the speed of light are a known constant is it possible to measure the amount of time between you ...
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How close to a lightning strike to be perceived at 140dBP, or to risk permanent hearing loss?
I was caught in an electric storm last night while camping. The time between flash and thunder must have been 3 seconds or less at least five times. (The nearest hill peak which could have been ...
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Has anyone experimented with simulating moon lighting?
Has anyone (in general) experimented with simulating moon lighting?
It means the following. A gray ball is illuminated with light with a brightness equal to that of the sun.
And at the corresponding ...
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Light Transmission Through Half-Hollow Sphere
I am looking for a light source, preferably a laser, for a specific optical experiment. The experiment involves a spherical object positioned 6 meters away from this light source. My goal is to shine ...
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How did a spark generate electromagnetic fields that radiate to places?
In the video and pictures below, this guy is trying to replicate Hertz's experiment to generate electromagnetic fields from a dipole antenna. How did a spark generate electromagnetic fields? I thought ...
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How thick in diameter is the average lightning bolt visually?
Note that I’m talking about the visual aspect of a lightning bolt: normal lightning bolts, according to a simple Google search, are only about an inch (3 cm) in diameter, but they appear much bigger ...
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If earth water were pure, would the atmosphere still produce lightning?
Like the title says: If Earth’s water were composed of pure H2O molecules, without anything else dissolved in it, would the atmosphere still produce lightning? I remember that distilled water is not a ...
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Search for a way to sustain lightning electricity [closed]
Is it possible to sustain lightning electricity through lightning rods?
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Can a pointed lightning rod prevent a lightning strike?
Will a pointed lightning rod disperse the ground charge into the air sufficient enough to prevent the ground charge from building and attracting a lightning bolt?
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How are electric sparks produced?
Here's what I have understood so far.
(Im talking about electric spark we see in a gas lighter,as shown in the picture)
When high voltage is generated at the central metal piece, electrons fly off ...
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Electric arc mechanism [closed]
The prominent justification for ground fault interrupter technology is inability of circuit breaker to trip if intermittent low level arcing is generated as a result of the ground fault, so would you ...
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In a van de Graaf generator, when a spark happens, is an electromagnetic wave produced? If yes, in which direction?
In a van de Graaf generator, when a spark happens, electrons moves from one globe to the other globe.
Is an electromagnetic wave produced?
If an electromagnetic wave is produced, why is it produced?
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What is the physic explanation why does a spark in spark generator doesn't jump in a straight way? [duplicate]
Picture source:
This is the spark in a spark gap transmitter, a transmitter in the early of radio is discovered, or maybe including the Hertz's experiment itself. This is also we may see in a spark ...
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Simulated nuclear blast using electric arcs
"Nuclear bombs" have some distinct associated phenomena. They produce loud bangs. They produce bright flashes of light. They produce bursts of gamma radiation.
These phenomena are diagnostic ...
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Why is the lightning waveform modelled by double exponential waveform?
As per wiki: The electric current within a typical negative CG lightning discharge rises very quickly to its peak value in 1–10 microseconds, then decays more slowly over 50–200 microseconds.
Why ...
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What is the maximum voltage gradient between two electrodes? [closed]
What is the maximum voltage gradient between two electrodes?
It would be great if you put the reference to your answer.
UPDATE
Our environment is vacuum.
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Does any colour appear white to our eyes if its emitted power is extremely large?
let's consider an ideal monocromatic source (for instance red) and let's assume you can regulate its emitted power without compromising its spectral "finesse".
Start from 0 emitted W/sr. It ...
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Does the power state of an electrical device affect its likelihood of being struck by lightning?
Holidaying in the tropics, I have come across the following behaviors which are all intended to reduce the likelihood of attracting a lightning strike when in a storm.
Turning off the CD player/radio ...
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Reasoning why the lightning shocks doesnt cause any shocks to a person inside car if the conditon is not fully electrostatic
I am just confirming here how the concept of electrostatic shielding helps in preventing lightining to be not getting into the car inside .
So we know car has a metal body outside , so first consider ...
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Is upper-atmospheric lightning loud?
The upper layer of the atmosphere has much less density, and pressure. Do phenomena like blue jets, or gnomes even make a sound?
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What happens to the positive charges in the cloud after a lightning discharge?
The clouds before a lightning strike contains ice crystal at upper part of the cloud that is positively charged and lower part of the cloud becomes negatively charged. When enough electrons ...
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Is this argument about sharp and blunt lightning rod right? [duplicate]
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 fluids, and lightning ...
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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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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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