Lightning Info- Everything you need to know at this point.

Lightning is one of nature’s most beautiful phenomena. It is fascinating but deathly. Having tremendous power and vigor, it doesn’t get the respect it deserves. The fear of lightning is known as keraunophobia, and the fear of thunder and lightning is brontophobia (sounds more like fear of brontosaurus dinosaurs, so don’t get confused), but really there is nothing to be afraid of, as long as you take the safety measures. And as I say, “Lightnin’ ain’t fright’nin”, for it isn’t. With over 2,000 thunderstorms occurring above the earth at any given time, it is no wonder that lightning flashes 50-100 times per second. There is so much to say, so I will separate it into many “easy-find” sections. 1-Numerical info 2-Lightning Physics 2a-Thunderstorm Meteorology 2b- The “Charge Reversal” Concept 2c-Types of Lightning 2d-Thunder 3-In Mythology/Religion 4-Probabilities 4a-Odds 4b-Statistics 5-Safety 5a-What to Do if You are Stuck Outside During a Thunderstorm 5b-Lightning and Objects 5c-Lightning’s Effect on Humans 5d-Types of Lightning Strikes to Humans 5e- Advancing Technology- Lightning Detection 6-Lightning and NASA 7-USA’s Lightning 7a- Florida’s Lightning 8-The “Heat Island” Effect 9-Other Random Lightning Facts 9a- Lightning’s Good Side 9b- Lightning Idioms and Myths 10-Conclusion 11-Bibliography 1-Numerical Information An average lightning bolt has 20,000 amps, 100 million volts, and is about 30,000˚F. It has enough wattage to power a 100-watt bulb for three months. It can reach temperatures of 54,000˚F, 8 times the surface temperature of the sun. Lightning’s voltage is proportional to its length, meaning that longer bolts are higher in voltage. This is because a higher voltage is needed to jump larger distances- as in capacitors. Lightning can reach voltages as low as 1 million, and as high as a billion. Its amperage ranges from 10,000-200,000. The wattage may soar to a trillion. You have all probably heard the saying “lightning never strikes twice in the same place”, meaning two of the same bad things can’t happen to the same thing, but its literal meaning is ironically false. In fact, the Empire State Building gets hit many times a year. Roy L. Sullivan was struck seven times between the years 1942-1977, and lived. Lightning very often does hit the same place or person twice. Will we be able to harness lightning’s energy? It is very impractical. Even though lightning looks as if it produces a large amount of energy, it really doesn’t, the reason being the time frame lightning takes up. When you factor physics in, lightning duration of only a few milliseconds doesn’t produce sufficient Coulombs. The amount of Coulombs is the energy amount. One Coulomb is a unit of electrical equal to the amount of charge transferred by a current of one ampere in one second. So if you multiply the 20,000 amps by about three milliseconds, that’s 20,000 × .003. This is equal to 60 Coulombs. That isn’t much, as one electron produces 1.602 × 10 to the power of -19 Coulombs. 2- Lightning Physics Scientists are perplexed by lightning. Lightning held, holds, and will hold great mysteries to scientists. Why lightning happens, how lightning happens, and when lightning happens are some of the mysteries that it holds. This is a very unpredictable force, and is hard to predict, for it is so sudden. For knowing what we got so far, you have to know the basics. 2a- Thunderstorm Meteorology To better understand how lightning works, you have to understand how a thunderstorm works. Thunderstorms can form over land, over sea, or move in from a place. For a thunderstorm to form, you need a low pressure system, a source of moisture, and warm air. What is a low pressure system? It’s when the air is forced upwards, creating updrafts- rotating, rising columns of air. You can sometimes see birds circling the updraft. The updraft carries the moist air to a cooler area of the atmosphere, condensing into cumulus clouds. If the pressure is low enough- meaning that there is a strong updraft, and the humidity is high enough, these clouds continue to grow into what is known as cumulus congestus clouds, towering cumulus clouds that are larger than a normal cumulus cloud. If you see these, it means a thunderstorm may be forming. The storms over the ocean are generally stronger than land-formed ones- unless the cause is of inter-coastal seabreeze (works similarly, but coastal winds collide to create these clouds), because of increased moisture. If the moisture supply continually is fed into the cloud, it will grow into a cumulonimbus cloud, sometimes bringing monstrous thunderstorms. These storms have updraft and downdraft regions- downdrafts are a region in the cloud where there is a downward rush of air. Inside the cloud, water collects around a single particle of a pollutant, like dust or pollen. This gets forced into the updraft, which freezes, and then falling due to the downdraft, melting of the temperature. As it melts, it gains a bit more water then repeats the downdraft/updraft cycle. These ice crystals are called graupel. When graupel gets heavy enough to resist the force of the updraft, it falls back into the downdraft region and out of the cloud, melting. This is what we call rain. It occurs mainly in the downdraft region. This is important to know, as it plays a role of lightning formation. 2b-The “Charge Reversal” Concept Lightning creation is one of the most controversial aspects of lightning science, as there is little known on the formation of it. Scientists have many theories, but one, the Charge Reversal concept is by far the most popular. Think about the rain formation. There are a lot of little drops in there. Don’t you think that the graupel will smash into other particles? It does, and in this process, scientists don’t know why that the tiny particles that break off become positive and the larger unbroken particles become negative. Tens of millions of these events happen at any given moment in the cloud. Since the smaller particles are so light, they travel to the top of the cloud, making that region positively charged. That means, that most of the time when you see the “anvil” of the cloud (trust me- you have), it’s positive. The negative graupel sinks to the bottom of the cloud, making that, well, negative. The charge spread out across the cloud is hundreds of millions of volts, about the same explosive energy as a small atomic bomb. This immense charge is enough to force the ground’s electrons deep into the earth, leaving the surface positive. This creates a natural “capacitor”, with the supply being the cloud’s base, and the receivers being the top anvil or the ground. In electronics, a capacitor is a tiny device that makes wavering voltages spike into one continuous voltage by sparking two plates. This works by collecting an amount of charge on the positive part. When the charge reaches a potential where it can arc across the gap, it does. Similarly the charge in the cloud continually grows until it reaches a point where the voltage is high enough to arc across two points. When it does reach a potential where it can arc across, the cloud lets out a “stepped leader”, named because it seems to follow a path of distinct ‘steps’, which is a plasma channel, about 2 centimeters wide, 50m long. There are about 100 of these in a lightning stroke. This heads for the ground, branching into several paths to the ground. When it is about 150 feet from a point, a “positive streamer”- a positively charged channel of electricity, jumps from many objects. The leader continues down, and one of the branches touches with one of the streamers. The part closest to the ground drains first, and then successfully higher, which reaches the cloud. Then a “dart leader” heads to the ground really fast along the same channel, discharging to the ground. Then a “return stroke” heads upwards about ten times slower than the dart leader, along the same channel. The dart leader/return stroke cycle repeats itself about 3-4 times, but can be 2 times or up to 15 times. This is what creates the “strobe-light effect”. The charge drains and the leader detaches and dissipates. All this happens in a few milliseconds. Sometimes there is a positive stepped leader, and a negative streamer, but the physics are the same, except that positive lightning is more powerful than negative lightning. Fulgurites are an impure form of glass that forms when the intense heat of a lightning strike fuses the sand together to form a lightning shaped “tube” of glass. The next time a lightning storm is in your area (which here, not too long from now), and you see lightning hit the ground, wait till after thirty minutes after the storm has passed, and dig carefully in that spot. If you come across a tube-shaped, porous, branchy thing about 2 centimeters thick, you may have found a fulgurite. Keep it and show it to your science teacher and explain what it is. You may impress him/her. To generate “mini-lightning”, all you need is a cat, a woolen or synthetic fiber cloth, a dark room, and a cold, dry day. Rub the cat with the cloth very quickly, and pull away the cloth really fast. You should see sparks of static electricity jump to the cat. The cat will remain unharmed, and it won’t hurt it a bit, although you might annoy it by you rubbing it with something. 2c- Types of Lightning There are very many different types of lightning, either positive or negative. It occurs at varying heights, and some of the events are rare. Cloud-Ground(CG’s)- Lightning that arcs from well, cloud to ground. Ground-Cloud(GC’s- Same as a cloud to ground, except that the ground lets out a stepped leader and the cloud a streamer. Ground-Ground(GG’s)- A rare type of lightning that arcs from a charged region of the ground to another region of the opposite charge. Those types of lightning account for 20% of all lightning. The others are all in the cloud. The rest of the lightning I am going to describe is a mix of terms and names. Cloud-Cloud(CC’s)- Lightning arcing from one cloud to another. Sheet- Lightning occurring within a cloud, seen from the ground as flashes. Heat- Lightning occurring over the horizon, seen only as a flash. Dry- CG Lightning occurring without rain, making this a forest fire hazard. Anvil Crawlers- Lightning arcing from the base or anvil of a cloud, “crawling” on the surface, and then entering back in the cloud. This type of lightning has been known to stretch 75 miles or so. It has more energy than a normal CG, so if it ends up arcing to the ground and not back into the cloud, it could have devastating effects. Ball- An extremely rare phenomenon, looking like a floating ball of electricity, although it is made up of plasma. This can last for a few seconds, although it is known for it to last 14 seconds. This mysterious phenomenon can pass through glass, breaking it into shards, or without a scratch. It is also known to go in circles and even chase people. The chances of seeing this is .01% in your lifetime. Blue Jets- Another rarity, this type of lightning is a bright blue flash, starting from the core of a cloud and extending 15 miles into the mesosphere. Sprite- The rarest form of lightning, seen only by low orbit satellites, is a red flash above the cloud, reaching 10 miles high and 15 miles wide. It is one of the least known lightning phenomena known about. Staccato- Lightning that seems so sudden and at once. Bead- Infrequent lightning that seems to look like a string of luminous segments rather than a single flash. Its causes are unknown, but one theory suggests differentiating thicknesses in the channel’s radius created different amounts of light emitted Positive Giant- Lightning that arcs from the positive anvil striking somewhere about 10 miles away. This is a very powerful form of lightning, and is often referred to “a bolt from the blue”. In idiom expressions, this means “something totally unexpected and random”, and in literal, it is, as it is often seen in clear skies, far from a storm. Superbolt- CG lightning with hundreds the times of energy of a normal lightning bolt. Very destructive. 2d- Thunder Thunder, lightning’s grumbling partner, is caused by the rapid heating and expansion of air near the stroke. It expands so fast, it explodes. Since light travels about 5 times the speed of sound, you can use the following formula: l= (1/5) t for miles, and l= (1/3) t for km, where l= the distance lightning hit, and t= time between lightning and thunder. For example, if there is a time frame of 18 seconds, it would be 3.6 miles or 6 km. If thunder and lightning were music notes, lightning would be a staccato quarter note, while thunder is a fortissimo whole note. Why does thunder roll and last longer than lightning? Imagine if you asked a thousand trumpeters to line up in an uneven pattern, so they resemble a lightning channel. The trumpeter closest to you, you hear first and the loudest. The trumpeter furthest from you is the faintest and the last to be heard. Make them do the same pattern in a place with tall buildings. The sound seems to distort. So the lightning’s jagged path creates different distances from you. The different sound waves reach you at different times. The sound also echoes of objects, totaling for a loud, long, rolling effect. Because thunder surrounds the channel, a very close strike cannot be heard. 3-In Mythology/Religion When you think of mythology and lightning, you immediately think of Zeus (got his thunderbolt because the Cyclopes honored him), right? But he isn’t the only lightning god out there. In fact, almost all of the mythological gods that control thunder and lightning are of the highest rank of deity. Other than that, one of two other major gods I know is Thor, Norse god of thunder and lightning. We name a day of the week after him- Thursday (Thor’s Day). It’s no joke. The Roman god, Jupiter, also controls thunder and lightning. We honor him by naming the solar system’s largest planet after him. In my own religion, Islam, it is said in the Quran that-"Have you not seen how God makes the clouds move gently, then joins them together, then makes them into a stack, and then you see the rain come out of it.... (Quran, 24:43)" The preceding verse, after mentioning clouds and rain, speaks about hail and lightning, "....And He sends down hail from mountains (clouds) in the sky, and He strikes with it whomever He wills, and turns it from whomever He wills. The vivid flash of its lightning nearly blinds the sight. (Quran, 24:43)" (taken from Ask.com) 4-Probabilities Lightning can strike anywhere and anytime there is a thunderstorm. What are the odds of being hit this year, if you aren’t in Florida? What are the chances you will be hit in your life? What are your chances of surviving lightning? What are the odds you will die by lightning? How many people die by lightning a year? How many people die by lightning in Florida? What states receive the most and the least lightning? These questions and more will be answered in this next section. 4a- Odds What are the odds of being hit this year? The normal chance, if you’re not in Florida, is approximately 1 in 600,000. But we are in Florida, so our chances increase by 350%. Now you divide 600,000 by 3.5, and you get 210,000. So our chance of getting hit is 1 in 210,000. What are the odds you will be hit in your life? The normal odds are 1 in 3,000. But when you factor in the 350%, it is 857 1/7. Our chance is a scarily high 1 in 857 1/7. Can your chances increase? Those two approximates is if you follow the safety measures. But if you are like me, who doesn’t really follow the safety measures, but instead goes out to watch the lightning, or just really stupid and (as an example) go play golf on a hilly open course with a lot of iron concentrates in it every day during a lightning storm in July and August here in Florida, your chances will drastically increase, got it? So don’t go to the roof of a three story building having a seven foot long metal pole and start running in circles when you see lightning outside, unless you’re deliberately trying to hurt yourself, ok? What are the chances you will get hit and die? It’s a relatively small number, for a year, 1 in 2.32 million. One in 87,000 bolts hits someone. One in 345,000 bolts kills someone. Comparatively, can you give an analogy to say how low or high this chance is? You are 6 times more likely to be hit by lightning than win the lottery. You have 90% chance surviving lightning. But if you survive a hit, you will suffer many permanent damages. 4b- Statistics Of a 2005 estimate, 473 people got hit that year in Florida alone. Approximately 2,000 people around the world die in a year, meaning that about 20,000 got hit. In America, 1,000 people get hit, and about 100 die. The state that gets the most lightning is none other than our Florida, receiving the second most lightning than anywhere else in the world. The cities are that of particularly on the I-4 corridor- mainly Tampa (that’s where they get the team name Tampa Bay Lightning), and Orlando. The states that receive the least lightning are Alaska and Hawai’i, having zero reported lightning deaths. Florida receives the most lightning deaths and injuries overall, more than all the states combined, but New Mexico receives the most lightning deaths per million. Most lightning victims (84%) are men. July is the most dangerous month for lightning. Here in Florida, it is July and August. 3 PM is the most dangerous time for lightning, 5 times more dangerous than 9 AM, anywhere in the world. The most lightning prone region in the world is a small village called Kifuka, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, receiving 158 strikes per square mile (I am so visiting there when I get money for a plane fare and I am old enough). 70% of all lightning injuries occur in the afternoon. Lightning strikes only one person 91% of the time. In the US, 85% of lightning victims are under 35. You have 60% more chance being hit when standing under an oak tree than a birch tree because of its vertical roots. 5- Safety Lightning is a powerful, dangerous, force. You do not want to get hit by it. I guarantee you, you’ve probably been within a thousand feet of lightning at least once. So unless you are like me and crazily love lightning, or just plain idiotic, and don’t care about the safety measures, follow them. 1. Do not use the computer or any other electronic devices directly connected to the building circuit. This includes stoves and washing machines. I know a guy in my taekwondo studio that got hit this way. If lightning happens to hit your house, 4% of lightning fatalities are because of people failing to follow this and the next safety measure by thinking that the building’s grounding wire will save them. You don’t have to get way too precautionary, for I have used the computer, television, and phone thousands of time during a thunderstorm, and nothing has yet happened, and hopefully nothing will happen in the future. 2. Do not use water connected to the main system, as if lightning hits the house, the current may find its way into the system. I know quite a few people who know people who suffered lightning strikes this way. One of the main things a person does is take a shower or sit on a toilet seat during a thunderstorm and puts their life at risk to a lightning strike. Once again, don’t get too much safety concerned, as once again, I have taken showers and been in the bathroom hundreds of times, and nothing has happened yet. 3. Do not be outside during a lightning storm, unless you are someone like me, who loves lightning more than anything, and have large pine trees in your neighbor’s backyard, and have a tall oak tree in your own backyard to direct most lightning strikes away. 4. Do not stay next to large windows or doors, as lightning has been known to enter through windows and strike people. If you have a metal cage near the window, like those that cover our pool decks, then it’s safer, but not totally safe. 5. Do not do recreational activities outside during a lightning storm, such as golf, fishing, boating, playing or watching sports while on a raised area in large groups, etc. 48% of lightning injuries and fatalities occur this way. 6. Do not go out on an open field or a body of water. You may be in danger of a lightning strike. 7. Do not wait until you hear the first rumble of thunder or the first flash of lightning to go inside. Many lightning injuries and fatalities occur this way. In fact, go inside as soon as you see very large cumulus congestus clouds. 8. Do not swim during a thunderstorm. Lightning may hit the pool while you are in it, and you might be zapped. 5a- What to do when you are Stuck Outside During a Thunderstorm Maybe you didn’t heed my warnings and still did whatever you are doing, and you sense lightning is going to strike near. You ask yourself- What do I do? What do I do? I should have done whatever that report thingy said! This is what you do, and for Pete’s sake, pay attention this time! 1. If you are stuck in an open field, and lightning is about to strike, which you can tell by looking at metal objects to see if they are sparking or crackling, or if your hair is on end, and there is nothing around but flat, flat, land, duck down into the “lightning desperation position”, where you basically crouch down as low as possible, and put your hands on your head. Don’t lie down; as you give a greater surface area for the current could travel through. 2. If you are stuck in an open field with a ditch near you, go into the ditch and once again, take the lightning desperation position. 3. If you are stuck in an open field with many people, spread 20 feet away, to decrease conductivity, and all go down into the lightning desperation position. 4. If you are under a tree, get out from under it and go take shelter. 5. If you’re in a car, stay in it. 6. If you are outside plainly, go into the nearest shop or building that you are allowed in, or go home. 7. Cancel that event you were planning! Don’t risk it. 8. Get off that lake. Do I even have to explain why? 9. Stop golfing. I mean, you’re holding a metal pole in an open field during a thunderstorm. Doesn’t anything occur to you? 10. Don’t take shelter in a cave. Caves may have traces of conductive material in it, and the air is humid in it, so both can conduct electricity inside of it. 11. Don’t take shelter under a tarp. Lightning hitting the ground nearby still has enough potential to arc underneath it. 12. There are more, but just to keep it simple and no worries about these things, JUST STAY INDOORS!!! 5b- Lightning and Objects CG lightning has to hit something. And what it hits does have different effects. Trees- the sap inside it instantly vaporizes and explodes, sending burning wood shrapnel everywhere. Some sight to see. I’ve seen a burnt tree like this in a forest before. It looked like a chair, and there was a message board talking about it. Ground- Nothing really happens. Maybe a burnt patch, sometimes if grass is very dry, a fire. Might create a fulgurite. Nothing much here. Water- Vaporizes some instantly, may kill or paralyze marine life. Airplane- Perfectly safe from a lightning strike. Have tiny poles on it called “static discharge wicks” that prevent the buildup of a charge. An average commercial airliner gets hit at least once a year. Although it protects the people from the electricity, it has no protection from its magnetic field. House- Has various safety measures. May, but rarely, catch fire. Car- As long as you don’t touch the metal body of the car, you’re fine. A properly managed gas tank will not ignite. A Metal Pole- Nothing, if it is conductive. It grounds the current. Transformer- May blow. May cause power outages. Gun Powder- Situation highly unlikely, but big explosion Person-Explained in next two sections. 5c- Lightning’s Effect on Humans Even though it is unlikely, lightning does strike people. 10% die, mainly because of cardiac arrest. Of the other 90%, 70% suffer long term injuries. It includes, but not limited to, serious burns, mood swings, memory loss, pain, hot flashes, risk of cardiac arrest increase, etc. If a person was having a metal object on them at that time, it could’ve melted on them. If the person had been carrying a device on them, it would be fried. Cotton has a low burning point, so that would explode if a person were wearing a T-Shirt or pants of that. Why then, do these people survive, if 650mA can kill? Lightning’s current doesn’t go through a person, but around. A thin layer of moisture coats a person at all times, and this is the path it takes. A person can limit burns if when they get hit, they are soaking wet. If you see a person that got hit, and is unconscious, first check to see if the person is alive. Check their pulse, and then take them to the hospital for further assistance. If possible, contact the family of the person to notify the event. 5d- Types of Lightning Strikes to People A person doesn’t have to be directly hit to be affected. There are a few different ways a person can be affected. The following info is copied from a page on howstuffworks.com. Direct strike - a cloud-to-ground lightning strike hits you or something you're holding, like a golf club, dead-on instead of reaching the ground. Side flash - lightning strikes something close to where you are standing and then jumps from that to you. Contact potential - while you're touching something, like a fence-post or a tree, lighting strikes that object and the current travels from the object through the point of contact into your body. Step voltage - you're sitting with your feet together in front of you, knees up and rump settled on the ground near a spot where a cloud-to-ground lightning strike hits. As the lighting current disperses, it travels through your body by entering one point, say your joined feet, and exiting another, your rear end. Surge voltage - while you're using some type of electrical appliance or a telephone, lighting strikes the source of power or network connected to the device and you receive a shock. 5e- Advancing Technology- Lightning Detection While there is no technology yet to say where and when lightning will hit, there are technologies that can tell when and where a strike is prone. This technology is used in many companies and studies, such as NASA and Lightning Science studying students in the University of Florida. In Camp Landing, a UF research site, students launch a rocket with 2,000 feet of metal wire when a strike is prone in the area, to create a “triggered strike”. They use this information collected from various meters, and form a data file. But they do not launch without having a prone strike, so they use this technology to find that out. You can also buy tiny units that tell where the lightning strikes are happening, when lightning may strike in your area, and how far away a strike you saw was. 6- Lightning and NASA Who made those technologies though? It’s none other than our 40 mile away friend, NASA. They pioneered lightning detection. Why did they do that? What do they need that technology for anyway? November 14, 1969. The Apollo 12 mission was just about to start the countdown. It had been a stormy day. The officials thought it would just pass over. They were just about to start the countdown when lightning had struck the shuttle. Everyone inside the shuttle was ok, but the shuttle was nearly shut down due to the fact that the circuits were fried. KSC launch just happens to be smack center of Lightning Alley. Per kilometer, it is hit 40 times a year. So nowadays, if there is a lightning strike within 10 nautical miles of the launch pad (mainly launched from 37A and 37B), the launch is scrapped. 7- USA’s Lightning The areas that east of the Rockies do not see much lightning. The Rockies itself and Florida sees more lightning than anywhere else in the US, with Florida seeing more. The Central Plains also receive a lot of lightning, not as much as Florida, though. Alaska and Hawai’i are the least lightning prone. 7a- Florida’s Lightning Since Florida is the second most lightning prone region in the world, we really don’t have to chase the lightning. We can watch it right in our own backyard, although that isn’t advised. Lightning is Florida’s prominent weather phenomenon. Particularly central Florida, you can watch lightning, occurring mainly at 3-5, but I once witnessed a tremendous lightning storm last 9 hours. Florida peaks in lightning during July and August, being the least in February. Our “Sunshine State” title attracts tourists from around the world, not knowing most of our sunny days are in the winter. They come during the summer to enjoy our famous tall Disney and Wet n’ Wild rides, not knowing that lightning may spoil their plans. What an unfortunate place to build these touristic places. Right dead center of Lightning Alley. These theme parks have a rule- if lightning is seen, or thunder is heard, all rides are subject to close for 30 minutes until after the last strike. I had been on a ride when a first strike was spotted, not knowing it was lightning. 8- The “Heat Island” Effect Austin, Texas. Second in line to Florida for amount of lightning. This is a very large polluted city. Even Orlando and a few other Floridian cities encounter this effect, which makes lightning activity more potent and increasing. The “heat island” effect is a theory that in a large city, the pollution makes very hot air collect in an area. When a cold front moves in, it slides over the hot air mass. Since hot air rises, and cold air sinks, the hot air circles upwards, cooling. The cold air circles downwards, warming. This cycle creates powerful updrafts. When you add moisture into the equation, the updrafts carry moist air which cools in the cold front air. This condenses to form clouds. The unnatural hot air keeps forming these updrafts, in turn making larger and larger clouds. They soon grow into cumulonimbus clouds. Along with these updrafts, pollutant particles also follow. This means that one- acid rain may form, and two- there is more graupel. More graupel means more graupel crashes, means more charge forming, leading to more lightning. 9- Other Random Lightning Facts  Lightning’s color greatly varies. If you have ever seen lightning arcing from the top of the cloud purple, reentering the cloud, and then arcing back to the ground orange, it is because of different chemical compositions changing its color.  Lightning creates a chemical reaction with the air, producing nitrogen.  Lightning may have a link to why life started on earth.  The animal that gets killed by lightning the most is the giraffe (I’m not surprised).  Lightning kills more people than hurricanes.  It would take 7 lightning strikes to get you below 50% (landing heads or tails when choosing one) survival chance.  It would take 44 strikes to get you below 1% survival rate.  Lightning has recently been known to produce gamma waves.  Lightning occurs also on our gas giant planets, not only earth.  Jupiter’s lightning is far more powerful than earth’s.  Lightning has also been known to occur in pyrocumulus clouds, or clouds made from smoke. Lightning can also occur during a volcanic eruption, due to the ash cloud. 9a- Lightning’s Good Side Lightning has a very destructive side, but it has many good sides too.  Lightning’s ability to create nitrogen is amazing. “What is nitrogen good for anyway?” you may ask. Nitrogen is a natural plant fertilizer, which makes it good for the environment. It also thickens the ozone layer, making less UV rays enter earth’s atmosphere.  Some plants only release their seeds in the intense heat of a forest fire. Lightning helps speed up the process.  Lightning may be linked to the formation of the first life. Back when the earth was a tumultuous young fireball of a planet, lightning was constantly striking the earth. When it did, a small amount of amino acids were produced- a necessary ingredient for thriving life. 9b- Lightning Idioms and Myths i. The saying “a bolt from the blue” means “something totally unexpected”. It comes from lightning terminology. In lightning terminology, it refers to a Positive Giant arcing from the top of a cloud and striking somewhere totally unexpected, mainly in clear skies, making it like the idiom. ii. The saying “lightning never strikes twice” is a false representation meaning “two bad things can’t happen to the same person”. In fact, lightning often strikes the same place twice many times. Tall buildings often get hit many times a year. I guess that’s why bad things keep happening to one person. Better scrap that saying. iii. Contrary to popular belief, Benjamin Franklin was not hit by lightning. When he flew his kite, a charge built up on the kite. When he touched the key, a spark leaped to his hand. iv. Talking on a cordless phone during a thunderstorm will not get you zapped. I mean, it’s only cordless. v. Lightning rods do not attract lightning. They just draw lightning away from your house or whatever you don’t want it to hit, and ground it. vi. Tall objects don’t always get hit by lightning. Tall objects are more prone to get hit than other objects, for the stepped leader is closer. Lightning always tries to take the path of least resistance (literally), and resistance is (here is more physics) increased if the object has less electron holes in its valence electron field. So lightning can hit anywhere. vii. Lightning doesn’t always hit metal objects. Metal is just the path of least resistance. Metals have a large number of electron holes, and all of those electrons were pushed into the ground. This leaves a large positive charge on the metal, allowing it to be more likely to be hit than other objects. viii. Waiting ‘till you hear the first bang of thunder or first strike of lightning isn’t the smart thing to do. You then have already put yourself at risk for thirty minutes or so. Many deaths occur this way. ix. Judging how far a storm is by counting seconds is highly unreliable. That just tells how far away lightning had struck. Lightning can hit 15 miles from the storm’s main core, so it really won’t do much help to you if you want to know how far the storm is. x. Wearing many metal objects can get you hit is a debunked myth. Metal can increase your chance, but unless you are the tin man walking in the middle of an open field in Florida during a thunderstorm on a July day, it will not make you certainly get hit. 10- Conclusion Lightning has been mystifying scientists for many centuries. Lightning has become so inexplicable and sundry of types and structure, it has become a class of its own. What was mentioned in this report is subject to change in the next century, for lightning is a very litigious topic. This fascinating force has captivated a few with its beauty, but intimidated most others. The force doesn’t receive the admiration it deserves. Lightning truly is awesome. I know awesome is a greatly overused word, but the meaning of it is “full of reverence and awe”. I really do find that in lightning. Lightning has baffled scientists for centuries, and I have a feeling it will continue to do just that. 11- Bibliography “Lightning: When Nature Strikes Back” Discovery. Silver Spring, Maryland. 29 May, 2009. Television "Lightning." Lightning. Ask.com/Wikipedia, 20 May 2010. Web. 23 May 2010. Neer, Katherine. "What If I Were Struck by Lightning?" Www.howstuffworks.com. Discovery. Web. 23 May 2010. Lux, Jim. "Lightning Facts." Http://home.earthlink.net/~jimlux/lfacts.htm. 1997. Web. 23 May 2010. Greene, Stewart. "Facts About Lightning." Http://climbing.about.com/od/staysafeclimbing/a/LightningFacts.htm. About.com. Web. 23 May 2010. "Facts and Stats On Lightning." Http://www.needful-things.com/batlightning7.html. Web. 23 May 2010. Faidely, Warren. "Lightning." The Ultimate Storm Survival Handbook. Nashville, TN: Rutledge Hills, 2006. 69-87. Print. Lightning Nature’s High Voltage Light Show Written by Noorul Hassan for a project in 7th Grade