{"id":99147,"date":"2025-09-08T10:46:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T14:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/?post_type=cu_story&p=99147"},"modified":"2025-11-12T09:53:55","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T14:53:55","slug":"understanding-lightning-fear-curiosity","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/understanding-lightning-fear-curiosity\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Understanding of Lightning Has Been Driven by Fear and Shaped by Curiosity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Our Understanding of Lightning Has Been Driven by Fear and Shaped by Curiosity\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

Playwright Tom Stoppard, in Rosencrantz and Guildernstern are Dead<\/em><\/a>, provides one of the best definitions of science: “The scientific approach to the examination of phenomena is a defence against the pure emotion of fear.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nowhere is this more true than in the study of electricity in the wild; namely, lightning. Primitive humans must have been terrified by lightning, so much so that it is built into many religions<\/a>. Lightning is almost always associated with the most powerful gods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Greco-Roman mythology, Zeus is armed with lightning bolts. In Norse mythology, Thor is the god of thunder and lightning. The Yoruba god Shango is associated with thunder, lightning and justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lighting appears in popular culture as well, and Shakespeare \u2014 for once \u2014 gets it wrong in Cymbeline<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Fear no more the lightning flash.
Nor th’ all-dreaded Thunderstone.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

This refers to the old (and not unreasonable) idea that thunder was caused by immense stones falling from the sky<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The French expression “coupe de foudre<\/a>” \u2014 lightning strike \u2014 roughly translates as “love at first sight.” In English, we know that “lightning never strikes twice<\/a>.” This is untrue: unfortunately, lightning hits the CN Tower in Toronto about 75 times annually<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ricky Deacon \/ iStock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A billion volts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Our modern understanding of lightning starts with Benjamin Franklin, who proposed flying a kite in a thunderstorm<\/a> with a metal key attached to the end of the wire. He hypothesized that the current would travel down the line, but he probably had too much sense to actually perform the experiment. French physicist Thomas-Fran\u00e7ois Dalibard conducted the lightning rod experiment in 1752. The same experiment killed German physicist Georg Wilhelm Richmann<\/a> in 1753.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do we know about lightning? The basic process that creates thunderclouds is that positive charge, in the form of ionized atoms, is carried to the top by the up-drafts. The top of the cloud is positively charged, the bottom of cloud is negative and a positive charge is induced on the ground<\/a>. The voltage between the bottom of the cloud and the ground can range between 100 million to one billion volts<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though dry air is normally an insulator, it will break down and becomes a conductor if the electric field reaches three million volts per metre. The actual process that goes on is complex: the electric field builds up beyond the maximum, producing ionized, conducting paths developing downwards from the cloud and upwards from the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These branch and bend at random, depending on the local density of the air. When they meet, they form a conducting pathway that discharges the charge imbalance in a few milliseconds. The current can be huge, up to a million amps<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lightning is not unique to thunderstorms on Earth. Volcanoes provide rapid up-drafts with a lot of friction between the ash particles<\/a>. The Galileo space-probe<\/a> has captured images of lightning on the night-side of Jupiter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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