2007-02-14 18:51:48 · 7 answers · asked by girishbrahme 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Weather
Because if it strikes anything, that thing almost HAS to be on the ground because of gravity. Other than that, you have cloud-to-cloud lightning, and airplanes and birds for lightning to strike. Lightning can travel underground too. People have struck by lightning even when a bolt didn't even appear to strike them.
2007-02-14 18:54:59 · answer #1 · answered by Mickey Mouse Spears 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Actually lightning does not strike the ground. When a storm front approaches it brings negative ions. Because in nature opposites attract - positive ions start to collect and stream upward toward the negative ions in the sky. That is what causes your hair to stand up if you are in the area of a lightning strike.
The electrical connection is thought to take place several hundred feet in the air. The resulting electrical stream (or lightning) is the flow of electrons to and from the ground to balance the negative and positive ions.
A couple of pointers:
* Lightning does like to strike in the same place because positive ions collect is some areas more than others depending on the content of the subsurface soils.
* When in the area of a lightning strike - if you feel your hair standing up - get flat on the ground fast......
2007-02-18 16:01:21 · answer #2 · answered by jimmy cee 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The first process in the generation of lightning is still a matter of debate:one common idea from scientists is that lightning forms from the ejection of charged particles from the sun, which reach Earth through the solar wind.These charged particles cause the Earth to acquire an electric charge in its outer atmospheric layers, especially the ionosphere. Large quantities of ice in the clouds are suspected to enhance lightning development. This charge will neutralize itself through any available path. This may assist in the forcible separation of positive and negative charge carriers within a cloud or air, and thus help in the formation of lightning.
2007-02-14 18:57:54 · answer #3 · answered by bill4pill 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It doesn't. It comes out of the earth to meet up with clouds. It has to do with built-up reverse electrical charges that can be detected with special equipment: I've seen it on Weather Channel. So, that's why it's from highest places in the area where the charge is building up. It just LOOKS like it's coming down, when it's really the other way around.
It's really a very devious kind of reverse Satanic air-burst, you could call it flatuence, by the Devil, himself.
2007-02-14 19:28:02 · answer #4 · answered by ? 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Have a look at a VanDeGraff static electricity generator. Tell me it doesn't look a lot like the air flow in a Towering Cumulus. Now that you have the big static charge on the cloud, Kirchoff's law kicks in which says, in my version, that you are not allowed to keep the electrons. They absolutely will go back where they came from.
2007-02-14 21:23:38 · answer #5 · answered by ZORCH 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Actually it's a race. Bolts come from the ground and from the cloud and when they meet in the middle, a connection is made. This is the flash that you see. See the URL.
2007-02-17 18:28:18 · answer #6 · answered by Steve R 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because every electrical charge is attracted to the earth due to its magnetic field. If you have a rod in the sky with 5000000 volts the arc will go towards the earth
2007-02-14 22:33:23 · answer #7 · answered by Mutley! 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋