If electricity seeks the path of least resistance to the ground, then why does lightning strike up?

Answer 1

Thats a real good question. The answer lies in semantics.. You have the same type of logic as I do and one reason school is difficult because we shoot holes through the questions.. Good Job..

Ok...The correct statement would be that Lightning seeks the least resistance path from a negative potential to a positive charge.

Electrical ground not neccessarily the earth. It could jump from one cloud to the other)The important thing to remember is electricity flows as a result of a difference in electrical potential and in the direction from negative to positive.. It is also important to note that this is all based on electrical theory that is a description made up by man and using reference terminology as a standard that you could easily change and still have a working model.
When they say path of least resistance to ground they are talking about the path, the road so to speak not which way you are traveling on it.

Answer 2

Least resistance means it may be zero resistance or a resistance with a small value.When tall buildings are protected with a lightning arrestor, it is the case of zero resistance and the negatively charged particles from the bottom of the cloud passees smoothly through it to the ground without creating any damage.
When there is no such zero resistance path,and the potential differance exceeds a certain value(breakdown potential)between the cloud and the ground,the negatively charged particles accumulate at a particular portion of the cloud and try to find a least resistance(which is not a connection at all) path through air or some tallest object (which is not protected against lightning)in the nearby places and jumps to reach the ground through that least resistance path striking the object and causing damage.
It should be noted that a tallest object fitted with a lightning arrestor will protect only a small area around it and that too from the thunder cloud which is exactly over it.

Answer 3

Electrical charge is always in the air. Even more so during a lightning storm. Electrons will gather towards the path of least resistance, being wherever the lightning has decided to strike. The electrons closer to the ground obviously can get to ground easier than electrons in the air. The flash is the rush of electrons to ground. Therefore, the flash starts at the ground and then travels up the chain of electrons that are rushing to ground.

Answer 4

You are confusing the term "Ground", meaning 0 potential, with THE ground. which is USUALLY, but not in the case of an electrical storm, AT 0 potential. Lightning is caused by an extreme ELECTROSTATIC IMBALANCE, and such imbalances seek to balance thenselves. I would suggest http://science.howstuffworks.com/lightning.htm as a good source for simply-stated explanations on lightning.

Answer 5

Lightning is created by two huge electrical charges. When one is created in the clouds and initiates a leader to approach earth. The object that is about to be struck sends up a leader to meet the one coming down. When they meet the cloud is short circuited and a tremendous flash occures.

Answer 6

The force goes up and down as the positive and negative charges between the ground and the clouds are pushed towards each other to aid a connection.

The visible lightning is moving across the 'terminals' from positive to negative.

You will probably get a few ansas telling you it comes down. But it does go up!

Answer 7

lightning will strike depending on where the most Negative electrons are

Answer 8

it is because of the ionosphere . it is in a constant flux in our biosphere . this is also used by c.b. radios to talk to people very far away .