We often think that electricity is something that is generated only at power plants, and not at all in the fibrous masses of water clouds, which are so rarefied that you can easily put your hand into them. However, there is electricity in the clouds, as it is even in the human body.
The nature of electricity
All bodies are made up of atoms - from clouds and trees to the human body. Each atom has a nucleus carrying positively charged protons and neutral neutrons. The exception is the simplest hydrogen atom, in the nucleus of which there is no neutron, but only one proton.
Negatively charged electrons circulate around the nucleus. Positive and negative charges are mutually attracted, so the electrons revolve around the nucleus of an atom, like bees near a sweet cake. The attraction between protons and electrons is due to electromagnetic forces. Therefore, electricity is present wherever we look. As we see, it is also contained in atoms.
Interesting fact: the nature of lightning lies in the electricity that is contained in the clouds.
Under normal conditions, the positive and negative charges of each atom balance each other, so bodies consisting of atoms usually do not carry any total charge - neither positive nor negative.As a result, contact with other objects does not cause an electric discharge. But sometimes the balance of electric charges in bodies can be disturbed. Perhaps you experience it when you are at home on a cold winter day. The house is very dry and hot. You, shuffling bare feet, walk around the palace. Unbeknownst to you, part of the electrons from your soles has passed to the atoms of the carpet.
Now you are carrying an electric charge, since the number of protons and electrons in your atoms is no longer balanced. Try now to grab the metal door handle. A spark will slip between you and her, and you will feel an electric shock. Here's what happened - your body, which lacks electrons to achieve electrical equilibrium, seeks to restore equilibrium due to the forces of electromagnetic attraction. And it is being restored. Between the hand and the doorknob there is an electron flow directed towards the hand. If the room was dark, then you would see sparks. Light is visible because electrons emit light quanta when they jump. If the room is quiet, you will hear a slight crackle.
Electricity surrounds us everywhere and is contained in all bodies. Clouds in this sense are no exception. Against the blue sky, they look very harmless. But just like you are in a room, they can carry an electric charge. If so, beware! When the cloud restores the electrical balance within itself, a whole firework flashes.
How does lightning appear?
Here's what happens: in a dark huge thundercloud powerful air currents constantly circulate, which push various particles together - grains of ocean salt, dust and so on.In the same way that your soles, when rubbed against a carpet, are released from electrons, and particles in a cloud are released from electrons in a collision, which jump to other particles. So there is a redistribution of charges. On some particles that have lost their electrons, there is a positive charge, on others that take on excess electrons, now a negative charge.
For reasons that are not entirely clear, heavier particles charge negatively and lighter ones positively. Thus, the heavier lower part of the cloud is negatively charged. The negatively charged lower part of the cloud pushes electrons towards the earth, since the same charges repel. Thus, a positively charged part of the earth's surface is formed under the cloud. Then, exactly by the same principle, according to which a spark jumps between you and the doorknob, the same spark jumps between the cloud and the ground, only this very big and powerful one is lightning. Electrons fly in a giant zigzag toward the earth, finding their protons there. Instead of a barely audible crackle, a strong thunderclap is heard.
If you look at the whole process in slow motion, then this is what we will see. A dimly luminous band protrudes from the base of the cloud, called a conductor. The conductor, who is also the “leader,” begins to approach the earth with fast twisting movements. First, it slips 50 meters to the right, then 50 meters to the left. This is the same zigzag that we see in the sky. The leader’s path to the earth continues for a split second, the current strength in lightning reaches 200 amperes. In home wiring, the current does not exceed 6 amperes. When the leader is at a distance of about 20 meters from the ground, a spark jumps out from it towards the leader and connects to it. A dazzling zigzag rushes up to the cloud, the current strength reaches 10,000 amperes.
Interesting fact: A lightning bolt contains enough electricity to illuminate all homes and businesses in the whole city, but only for a split second.
The next leader quietly slides down the formed corridor, towards which a giant spark flies again. The temperature during a lightning strike reaches 28,000 degrees Celsius. Electricity flows fly up and down the channel many times: this is the process we perceive as one lightning strike.
How much energy is in lightning?
About 20 thousand megawatts, this energy is enough to illuminate all the houses and enterprises of the whole republic, though only for a split second.
