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Lightning is caused by electrons building up, either in the ground or in the clouds. When this electric potential becomes greater than the dielectric strength of the air between ground and clouds, the electrons will flow from one to another in the form of lightning. The dielectric strength of air is directly related to the distance between the two objects of interest. A lightning rod works by being higher than whatever it is meant to protect, so as electrons build up, lightning will strike the rod instead of whatever it is protecting. The lightning rod provides a low impedance path to ground, acting as a drain for the electrical build up.
So it attracts lightning by being higher than whatever it is protecting; it also discharges the electrical potential by providing a low impedance path to ground.
What else can I help you with?
How is lightning produced in the clouds if there is water in them?
Lightning is the discharge of static electricity. Items on the ground, including the ground itself, has one charge while the clouds in the sky, even the sky itself has the opposite charge. When one has more charge than the other, it discharges causing lightning.
What happens to the ground when there is a thundercloud overhead?
When a thundercloud is overhead, the intense electric fields generated can induce a positive charge on the ground below. This in turn can result in the ground becoming positively charged, leading to a potential difference between the cloud and the ground. If the potential difference becomes large enough, it can result in a lightning discharge.
Explain what causes lightning and thunder?
Lightning is caused by the buildup of electric charges in a storm cloud. When the charge difference becomes strong enough, it discharges as a lightning bolt. Thunder is the sound produced by the rapid expansion and heating of air surrounding the lightning bolt.
Electrical discharge between two clouds or between a cloud and the Earth's surface?
When an electrical discharge occurs between two clouds or between a cloud and the Earth's surface, it is known as lightning. Lightning is caused by the buildup of electric charge within clouds or between clouds and the ground. This buildup of charge leads to a discharge of electricity in the form of a lightning strike.
Is electric field dependent of magnitude of charge?
Yes, the electric field created by a point charge is directly proportional to the magnitude of the charge. As the charge increases, the electric field strength at a given distance from the charge also increases.
Is a lightning rod an electric conductor or an insulator?
A lightning rod is an electric conductor. Its purpose is to safely conduct the electrical charge from a lightning strike to the ground, thus protecting the structure it is attached to.
What happens when water flows over plexiglass electric charge?
Yup, an electric charge is generated.
How is electricity different from other electricity?
Static electricity is electric charge just sitting there. Electric Current is electric charge in motion. And the original terms for electricity is Lightning, Thunderbolt.
What causes the electric current that result in lightning?
Lightning is caused by a buildup of electrical charge in clouds. When the charge difference between the clouds and the ground becomes large enough, a lightning bolt is discharged to balance the charge. This sudden flow of electricity forms the lightning seen in the sky.
Ball A has a charge of 3 Coulombs Ball B has a charge of 5 Coulombs What is the net electric charge?
5 COLOUMBS?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!??!?!?! That is a lot of lightning
What happens when positive and negative charges come unbalanced?
When positive and negative charges become unbalanced, an electrical charge imbalance occurs. This can lead to the generation of an electric field and the potential for an electric discharge to equalize the charge imbalance, such as in the form of lightning or a spark.
What happens when there is a build up of an electric charge on an object?
The charge repels so if it's a conductor the charge moves as far away as possible (the side of the object). It will also attract other objects with an opposite charge, or repel ones with like charge.
What happens before there is a lightning discharge?
The cloud's strong negative charge attracts the ground's positive charge
When is lightning most likely to happen?
lightning mostly happens when there are a lot of clouds in the sky because lightning is the result when ice particles with negative charge is rubbed with another ice particle but with positive charge.
How powerful is bolt of lightning?
An average bolt of negative lightning carries an electric current of 30,000 amperes (30 kA), and transfers 15 coulombs of electric charge and 500 megajoules of energy.Positive lightning strikes typically carry six to ten times the charge and voltage difference of a negative bolt.
Is electric charge a tiny amount of energy?
Depends on the amount of the electric charge and on which place it is stored. Two clouds with a big amount of a potential electric charge, one positive and the other negative, will produce a huge amount of energy represented by a lightning bolt.
What are some real life examples of electric charge?
Static electricity, lightning, and the electricity used to power appliances are all electric charges.
