Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!decwrl!decvax!mcnc!duke!dukempd!crown
From: crown@dukempd.UUCP (Rick Crownover)
Newsgroups: sci.misc
Subject: Re: Lightning, Up or Down?
Message-ID: <512@dukempd.UUCP>
Date: 28 Feb 88 17:04:39 GMT
References: <64600001@mic>
Organization: Duke University Physics Dept.; Durham, N.C.
Lines: 19
Summary: Lightning can strike up (in at least one sense)

In article <64600001@mic>, gary@mic.UUCP writes:
> 
> Is it correct that lightning travels from the ground up instead of the
> sky down to the ground?  I vaguely remember that this is the case but
> do not remember where I read about it.
> 
	Lightning can strike upwards in one sense: in the mountains, it is
possible to see lightning originating in an air mass below the ground it strikesThere is a description of this phenom in Goethe's "Faust" in the Walpurgis
scene.  I doubt that lightning strikes from ground to sky for two reasons, 1)
the slow motion films I've seen always show it going the other way, and 2) the
ground is conductive and would have trouble building up a large local charge.
But, I'm with you, does anyone know?
	Aloha, Rick


-- 
	Rick Crownover				1-919-684-8279 
	Duke University Dept. of Physics	crown@dukempd.uucp
	Durham, N.C.      27706			mcnc!duke!dukempd!crown