Interesting Facts About Lightning

Lightning is a natural phenomenon in the form of large electric flashes which usually occur during the rainy season, which is marked by the appearance of flashes of light in the clouds and then followed by a thunderous roar. The source of this roar is the flash of lightning itself, but it is often heard a few moments after the flash of lightning depends on the distance of the lightning with us. The farther the distance of lightning with us, the longer the time lag between the lightning strike that can be seen with the audible sound. This is because the speed of light is much faster than the speed of sound, so the light will always be visible first then the roar is heard.

The Occurrence of Lightning

In electronics or electrical physics it has been known as charge of electron, proton and neutron. Electron charge is negative, protons are positive and neutrons are neutral. These charges are subatomic particles that make up an atom. The nature of these particles is to require a balance of charge between one atom and another. So if there is one atom that has an excess charge, then the charge will be released until the balance is reached. The process of releasing or transferring this charge is in the form of electrons from regions that have excess electrons (negatives) leading to areas that lack electrons (positive). This is what causes the emergence of electric current.

Similarly, the process of lightning that appears in the clouds. Clouds are constantly moving regularly. And during this movement, the clouds will experience friction with the air and will also meet with other clouds so that there is an interaction friction between clouds. This friction of the cloud with air will cause the displacement of charge between charge particles in the air with charge particles in the cloud. Similarly, what happens when clouds rub against other clouds. Then with the transfer of charge this will cause the load contained in the cloud to be unbalanced. In the lower cloud, the mass content of water is higher than the upper cloud due to the gravitational effect. In the lower cloud with a higher water mass content it will be more negatively charged than the upper cloud. In other words, electrons (negative charges) gather more in the lower clouds, while the upper clouds contain more protons (positive charges). While the earth / land, because it does not experience movement, there is no friction interaction so that there is no process of transfer of charge particles which causes the earth to have a balanced or neutral charge.

That way there is a potential difference between clouds and earth or other clouds. If the potential difference between the cloud and the earth is large enough, there will be a release of negative charges (electrons) from the cloud to the earth to reach the balance of the load. So that an explosion of electric flashes (lightning) appeared towards the earth. But not infrequently lightning strikes between clouds caused by potential differences between the clouds. In the process of releasing these electrons, the media through which electrons pass is air. Because the air also has a high enough insulation level, lightning will only occur if the electron has been able to penetrate the air isolation threshold. The water content in the air will cause the air insulation level to drop, making it easier to flow through electricity. Because water has a good conductor of electricity. That is why lightning is more common in the rainy season.

Power of Lightning

Lightning is a very large source of electric current because it is produced by a very large potential difference. Unlike electricity in the house which is a voltage source so it can regulate the flow of electricity. Lightning, on the other hand, is a source of current produced by a large difference in voltage potential so that the electric current that flows irregularly, is very large and can grab anything. In terms of strength, the electric current in lightning is very large, which can reach 26,000 amperes. While the amount of electric current that can be tolerated by humans is only 20 milliamperes or 0.02 amperes. The energy released by a lightning strike is also very large. The temperature produced on the path of lightning formation can reach 10,000 degrees Celsius. For comparison, iron can melt at a temperature of 1,375 degrees Celsius. That means the temperature produced by a lightning strike is almost 10 times that of the iron melting point.

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Lightning Sound

A lightning strike can produce an explosive sound that is loud enough to be heard up to a radius of several kilometers. But do you know how this thunderous thunder can be formed?

As discussed earlier that the temperature formed in the lightning path can reach 10,000 degrees Celsius. This very high temperature occurs so quickly that it causes sudden warming of the air that the lightning traverses. This resulted in a sudden expansion of the air on the lightning track with very high speeds even exceeding the speed of sound. This is what causes the explosion of lightning.

Safety Tips From Lightning Strikes

According to the National Weather Service, an estimated 1 in 12,000 people experience the possibility of being struck by lightning in his life. Because the electric current generated by lightning is very large then being struck by lightning can have fatal consequences and could even have an impact on the death of victims who were struck. For that it is very important for us to know the tips to be safe from lightning strikes. Here are some tips to be safe from lightning strikes:

1. Take refuge in homes, buildings or other roofed places such as cars. For more optimal security, make sure the roof is installed with a metal lightning rod, or the roof is made of metal.
2. Avoid sheltering under a tree, because when it rains the tree gets wet and easily flows through electricity.
3. Avoid being in an open place such as rice fields and fields because lightning tends to look for bulge objects in the field. This object can be animals, trees and humans.
4. Avoid towers, electric poles or other high objects because they are objects that are easily struck by lightning.
5. Do not be too close to the crowd, at least give a minimum distance of 4 meters to avoid the occurrence of lightning bursts of energy.
6. Stay away from everything that is electrified because lightning prefers to grab objects that are electrified.