In a lightning strike is the ground positively or negatively charged?
Lightning is a discharge of electrons which have gathered in one place. The source of a lightning strike is strongly negative.In the most common type (95 percent) of cloud to ground lightning, electrons gather at the base of a cloud and ionize streams of gas with a negative charge. These streams or "leaders" reach downward. At the same time on the earth, regions that are depleted of electrons create oppositely charged "leaders."At this moment, the cloud is negative and the ground is positive. That is all about to change.The "leaders" reach toward each other and often form branches along the way. When they meet, the electrons are discharged in a bolt of lightning that travels along the streams and the branches from the cloud to the ground.When lightning from a cloud strikes the earth, the earth has a positive charge with respect to the cloud. The cloud discharges its electrons into the earth. During the discharge, the air is super heated and attains a plasma state that is highly conductive. Other areas of the same cloud have regions that are depleted of electrons and thus have a positive charge which may have also created leaders. The plasma from the initial strike creates a channel and the earth, which has just received a massive influx of electrons and has become negatively charged, now discharges back into the cloud through the plasma channel to the depleted region of the cloud.Very often, the second or return strike is brighter than the initial strike.Much less often, the top portion of an anvil cloud reaches far ahead of the base of the cloud and attains a strongly positive charge with respect to the earth. The leaders reach out through the atmosphere, sometimes for miles, before turning downward toward negatively charged leaders from the ground. The result is the same, except that the electrons discharge into the cloud instead of from it.When lightning strikes "out of the blue," this is the type of lightning being referred to, since the cloud may be far away and in some cases not even seen. This lightning is exceptionally dangerous because there is no storm from which to seek cover or warn of impending strikes.
What happen if you get struck by lightning but your feet did not touch the ground?
If someone were struck by lightning without your feet touching the ground--say, maybe by climbing a tree--then that would mean that the electricity must have found some other path between them and the ground. When lightning strikes a person, it goes from cloud to person to the ground, directly or indirectly--maybe through the tree you're sitting in (don't sit in trees during thunderstorms, kiddies).Lightning is an electrical discharge, kind of like the static electricity you get when you touch a doorknob after you shuffle your feet on the rug and get zapped. There's a positive charge on one side, negative on the other, and they attract. Once they get close enough together, the charge can jump through the air; then electrons travel the distance and you have lightning.But say the lightning really couldn't get from you to the ground. Say you found a way to hover in midair somehow, so far from the ground that the lightning couldn't just jump the remaining distance. Well, in that case, the lightning simply wouldn't strike you. It would strike somewhere where it could get to the ground, probably a high point where the charge had built up during the previous few minutes. Your body simply couldn't have built up the charge that attracted the lightning, because if you're not connected to the ground, you're not picking up any charge.Not that this would be safe--it's pretty dangerous to be anywhere near lightning, even if it doesn't strike you directly.If you wanted to protect yourself from lightning, the best way to do it wouldn't be hovering off the ground; it would be giving the lightning something else to strike, where it could safely be conducted to the ground. That's how lightning rods work. You put them at a high point and ground them, and the lightning hits them rather than the roof of the building. Instead of hovering off the ground to prevent the lightning from striking at all, lightning rods control where the lightning strikes, so that it's as safe as possible. And if you were outside during a thunderstorm, your best bet would be getting to lower ground, because lightning strikes the highest point it can, where the distance between cloud and ground is the least, where it faces the least resistance.
Is it possible to use the lightning rod to charge some kind of a big unit of multi batteries in a series?
As it stands, lightning is not a particularly useful form of energy. It is very intermittent, sporadic in its strike location, and represents a huge current at huge voltages that are very transient.It is possible to charge capacitors from lightning discharges, but the capacitors of necessity have to tolerate very high voltages (>1MV) and surge currents (>60kA) and around 500MJ of energy. Such capacitors have low capacity as a result.Lightning - WikipediaIt should be pretty clear that experimenting with such energies is not for the foolhardy. Being killed is bad enough, but being blown apart and cooked at the same time leaves a very ugly mess for the undertaker to deal with.Regards, Tony Barry.
How do lightning rods work?
Lighting rods do both. A lighting rod will discharge the air around them and lessen the chance of lighting striking them but if the charge is large enough the lighting will discharge in a controlled manner through the lighting rod and into the ground without doing damage. What is strange today is that very few people use lighting rods.
If I have a metal rod in my leg, will a lightning strike give me more serious interal burns?
I know people who are wearing metal necklaces and stuff like that often get severe burns when struck by lightning (usually an indirect strike, because I'm talking about people who survived). Would having a titanium rod fused to the bone in my leg cause massive internal burns if I were struck by lightning? I mean people with necklaces have reported that it literally just melts on their body. I'm not actually worrying about this, I'm just curious.
Does a lightning rod attract or repel lightning?
niether.. a lightening rod is actually a good conductor with plenty of sharp ends or spikes. when a charged cloud(assumed negative) comes near the arrestor, opposite charges are induced in the spikes. these ionise the air in the vicinity which in turn neutralises the cloud. this reduces the potential of the cloud. the negative charge (transferred from the air to the rod) are passed to the ground by connecting wires. thus lightening is prevented by the arrestor.
Does lightning strike solar panels that are used for roofing?
We can wax poetic all day long about the benefits of metal roofing products, but most clients boil all that information down to a single question: What about lightning? Isn't metal roofing dangerous?The short answer: No, it's not. Metal roofing is perfectly safe. It does not attract any extra attention from lightning and, just like buildings constructed with traditional building materials, any electricity from a lightning strike will will be safely transferred to the ground below so occupants will be unaffected. Plus, metal's inflammable nature means your home will be even more safe should the place.actually take rare chance of a lightning strikePROTECT YOUR BUILDING FROM LIGHTNING STRIKES WITH A METAL ROOFThe concern about metal roofs attracting lightning strikes is most likely associated with the fact that metal can be an electrical conductor. Even so, metal roofs do not attract lightning and are not struck any more frequently than other roofing materials.Lightning is attracted to:High pointsThin pointsStructures that cover a large area of groundSo, the likelihood of a lightning striking your home, business or agricultural building depends on its height and size rather than the building materials you use. And, in fact, there is currently no known material that can be used to decrease the likelihood of a strike.What can be done is to decrease the potential for structural harm in the event that your building is struck. Fire is the most destructive element of a lightning strike because most roofs will immediately combust. In this regard, metal building materials far exceed traditional wood framed buildings due to metal's non-combustible nature.Should your metal roof be struck by lightning, the electricity will be spread out across a larger area, which diminishes the immediate impact. Then, the metal's fire-resistant properties will protect your building even further.Source: Whirlwindsteel
Why are lightning rods pointed? How do they work?
Lightning rods are pointed so a charge will be concentrated at the end. If the rod had a round end the charges would spread equally around its surface. By having a pointed end the charges will be given a direction to go when there is an opposite charge with enough potential to form a spark.The purpose of the lightning rod is to prevent the air from ionizing. Air doesn't conduct unless it becomes ionized. The voltage in the above atmosphere can be so large that it will ionize the air between it and the ground. If the air is prevented from ionizing by neutralizing the ions, then the air will not conduct a strike. A lightning rod is connected to the earth which can supply or absorb electrons. If the air above the rod becomes positively charged, the rod can allow electrons to move into the air and neutralize or discharge the ions making the air unable to conduct. If the air becomes negatively charged, then the rod will provide a path for electrons to go into the ground discharging the ionized air. As long as the air is prevented from ionizing it won't conduct the lightning bolt. The purpose of the rod is to prevent ionization by discharging the ions in the air.