The lightning bolt is a single DC hit. It goes from one side to the other with the purpose to equalize the difference in charge. If the sides aren't equalized after it, another one will follow the same path, but it's still coming from the same direction. Up or down is only depending on the balance of the charge.
This ion trail is a very small charge and isn't visible to the eye (and can definitely not zap something out of your hand). It's searching for the other side, leaving a path of electrons (the trail). When reached, the positive charged bolt follows this path, picking up the electrons on it's way from plus to minus. This is why the lightning bolts tend to have "branches" from the sides. In its search, the negative charge travels through the ways with lowest resistance. If this way splits, then so does also the search. But even though the new low resistance ways maybe don't lead anywhere, they will still be full of electrons, which the bolt will pick up when it travels through the "highway". The bolt can be seen as a picture of the entire search. The feeling you had about having static electricity everywhere, was probably related to trails though. The searching ion trailer is met by trailers rising from the other side... and it's when these find eachother and shake hands that the way for the bolt is finalized. Having this feeling of static electricity should be taken seriously, as this probably means that you're sending out these meeting trails. If you are the tallest object sending them out, you might get burned. /Nick -----Ursprungligt meddelande----- Från: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] För DonO Skickat: den 10 juli 2007 22:50 Till: [email protected] Ämne: Re: [VFB] Boating Safety Question Nick, Lightning is AC/DC- it goes both ways. The vast majority if strikes here are from air to ground, then within the storm (not reaching ground), then from ground to air. Out west we get thunderheads of incredible height, bringing hail the size of baseballs, and hundreds of lightning strikes. I got caught out once in prairie-land at a trout lake. Storm was coming and everyhthing around us seemed to be filled with static electricity. I tried to drop my rod from the side of the truck and an arc jumped out 4" and zapped the tar out of my hand. I have always wondered if this was the precursor to a real strike, them little ions telling the bolt which was the easiest way. DonO ----- Original Message ----- From: "Niclas Runarsson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2007 9:31 AM Subject: Re: [VFB] Boating Safety Question "Lightning is an arc that's looking for the path of least resistance to ground. Thus, it looks for a conductor that offers less resistance than air." Actually, the lightning itself is a lazy guy, as it doesn't look for anything. It's just following an Ion trail (lower resistance than air), that has already found the easiest way and "rolled out the red carpet" for him... coming from the opposite direction. Nick -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.476 / Virus Database: 269.10.2/893 - Release Date: 7/9/2007 5:22 PM
