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Lightening

During every minute of every day, roughly 1,800 thunderstorms are creating lightning somewhere on Earth. Though the chances of being struck by lightning are estimated at 1 in 700,000, these huge electrical sparks are one of the leading causes of weather-related deaths in the USA each year with an average of 73 people killed; about 300 people usually are injured by lightning. At any moment, there are 1800 thunderstorms happening in the world. About 100 lightning bolts strike the earth every second. Lightning is one of the most fascinating parts of weather science. Although in recent years it has become predictable and safety cautions exist, back in the day lightning was something to be marveled at and people looked at them in wonderment.

Lightning is a very large electrical spark. This spark happens when electrons move suddenly from one place to another. In a normal situation, electrons would be too small to see. However, during a lightning flash, they move so fast that it gives itself a certain glow. A streak of lightning shows the path the electrons took as they made their way to the ground.

Lightning is formed when the electrons in the bottom of the cloud are attracted to the positive atoms located in the top o


In 1752, Franklin improved his hypothesis by performing his legendary kite experiment. During a thunderstorm, he tied a metal key to the end of a kite string and set his kite flying to the sky. When sparks jumped from the electrified key, he knew that an electrical current had travelled from the electrified air down the kite string to his key. He had assumed that lightning was actually a natural form of electricity. However, according to his experiment, he was able to conclude that lightning was an electrical current.

Lightning can happen during snowstorms, hailstorms, sandstorms, tornadoes, and thunderstorms. Once in a while, lightning even seems to come out of clear blue skies. Out of all these possible scenarios, the one most likely to happen is the thunderclouds. A specific type of thundercloud is the thunderhead. Thunderheads are the towering clouds you see during thunderstorms. In addition to lightning these mammoth clouds can bring rain, hail, sleet, snow, and strong winds. Another name for a thunderhead cloud is a cumulonimbus (cumulous + nimbus) cloud.

Thunder can usually be heard for a relatively long amount of time compared to the split-of-a-second appearance of lightning. This happens due to several reasons. First of all, lightning is not straight: it has an irregular shape and many different strikes at once usually overlap each other. Also, the air expands non-uniformly to all directions, and objects often interfere with the flow of sound. Not only these factors contribute to a prolonged duration of the sound, they also create sound that arrives at different pitches and loudness to the listener. Since lightning often occurs in several bolts at a time closely together, they combine to form one continuous and rumbling sound.

There are many different methods to reduce the risk of lightning, and all are very important safety precautions. Lightning tends to strike tall objects, and standing on the ground is the best position. By standing away from tall structures such as trees and metal objects, this greatly decreases the chance of being struck by lightning. In addition, avoiding water is crucial because water acts as a conductor, which proves to be very dangerous at certain times. Finally, a safe place to stay during a lightning storm is in your car because the rubber tires ground you. These are all important safety precautions to be considered during a lightning and thunderstorm.

In his experiment, Franklin predicted that clouds were electrically charged and thus lightning must also be electrical. The experiment involved Franklin standing on an electrical stand, holding an iron rod with one hand to get hold of an electrical discharge between the other hand and the ground. If the clouds were electrically charged then sparks would jump between the iron rod and a grounded wire, in this case, held by an insulating wax candle.

A lightning protection system is composed of three main components, which consists of rods, conductor cables, and ground rods. Lightning rods do not actually attract light

Some topics in this essay:
Science Essay, Nobel Prize, Watson Lake, Leyden Jars, Lower Post, lightning strikes, ground lightning, lightning bolt, forest fire, abiotic factors, positive atoms, ground rods, protection system, lightning protection, lightning strike, abiotic factors ecosystem, cables ground rods, lightning protection system, biotic abiotic factors, sound thunder thunder,

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Approximate Word count = 2054
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)


  

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