Xref: utzoo comp.dcom.modems:3944 sci.physics:8406 Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!purdue!decwrl!vixie!avsd!childers From: childers@avsd.UUCP (Richard Childers) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems,sci.physics Subject: Re: TrailBlazer Plus vs. lightning Message-ID: <1198@avsd.UUCP> Date: 2 Jun 89 21:33:16 GMT References: <3784@phri.UUCP> <2289@pur-phy> <2790@scolex.sco.COM> Reply-To: childers@avsd.UUCP (Richard Childers) Organization: Metaprogrammers International Lines: 53 brianm@sco.COM (Brian Moffet) writes: >What I am curious about is why the click *before* he saw the strike >(flash of light)? Mr. Smith, is the correct order which you heard/saw >things > > > My guess would be that the came from the electromagnetic wave that accompanied the lightening strike, electromagnetic radiation. The _was_ the lightening strike, or the visible radiation. The was the atmospheric wave that occurred as a result of plasma expanding the air in an erratic path upwards. >Also about seeing lightning real close, If you could see through it, >wouldn't a photograph also show an image through the lightning? Probably not, in that a photographic plate would react strongly to the billions of visible photons that impacted upon it in that millisecond, making it intensely black on the negative and intensively white on the print. >Or is lighting being transparent just an optical illusion? I'd think it's not really transparent. From what I understand, lightening is best understood as a huge spark following the path of least electrical resistance from cathode ( the ground, I believe ) to anode ( the clouds ). This path is rarely a straight one, it is quite turbulent ... and it's not too surprising that a massive pulse of electrons generating heat and light would add substantially to the turbulence. I've heard it represented as a very short-lived channel of plasma. Certainly, it's transparent at some frequency. Maybe gamma rays ... The above information was acquired from a book I read on the topic, I think it's called _Lightening_, by Leon Salanave, published about a decade ago by University of Arizona Press and the culmination of some thirty years of study of lightening in Arizona, at and around Kitt Peak Nat'l Observatory. ( Also my stepfather ... ) >Brian Moffet {uunet,decvax!microsoft,ucscc}!sco!brianm -- richard -- * "We must hang together, gentlemen ... else, we shall most assuredly * * hang separately." Benjamin Franklin, 1776 * * * * ..{amdahl|decwrl|octopus|pyramid|ucbvax}!avsd.UUCP!childers@tycho *