Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!lll-tis!ames!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bgsuvax!drich
From: drich@bgsuvax.UUCP (Daniel Rich)
Newsgroups: sci.misc
Subject: Re: Lightning, Up or Down?
Message-ID: <1620@bgsuvax.UUCP>
Date: 29 Feb 88 17:38:09 GMT
References: <64600001@mic>
Organization: Bowling Green State University B.G., Oh.
Lines: 28

From article <64600001@mic>, by gary@mic.UUCP:
> 
> 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.
> 
> Gary Lewin  killer!mic!gary

  If I remember my physics correctly, the lightning strike that we see
is from the ground upwards.  Since the clouds are usually positively
charged (the air strips electrons from them), the ground tends to take
a negative charge near them.  Electricity travels from negative to
postive, therefore lightning travels upwards.

  I believe that someone said that the films they had seen show it
traveling the other direction.  Think about this for a second....
electricity travels at approximately the speed of light (actually, in
air it is a little slower).  At this speed, how could you ever
determine a direction from film?

	- Dan Rich
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