Lightning

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by ronthepon

What creeps me out is fact that our building is struck by lightning quite often. Almost everytime there is a storm.

Most buildings have a lightning rod and/or grounding system to safely direct the lightning's current to Earth. American Ben Franklin invented the lightning rod and actually conducted his famous lightning & kite experiment to support his plan to put a lightning rod on the Christ Church under construction in Philadelphia.

As for lightning hitting the ground, if you manage to locate the exact point of contact, start digging carefully & see if you can find/recover a "petrified" lightning bolt. Rare to find, let alone recover, procurring a fulgurite is a veritable coupe for a lightning buff.

[Jay-qu]

wow thats cool

I saw it on a movie once so I was sceptical if it would work but a guy would put large metal rods into sand and when lightning struck the rods the sand would be turned to glass in cool shapes. Does this really happen?

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by Jay-qu

wow thats cool

I saw it on a movie once so I was sceptical if it would work but a guy would put large metal rods into sand and when lightning struck the rods the sand would be turned to glass in cool shapes. Does this really happen?

It is possible yes. However, the movie you saw may have either really done it, or simply used special effects to simulate a real effect.

I am collecting some information on researchers who intentionally attract and/or induce lightning. Do not under any circumstances try it at home!

[orbsycli]

Doesn't some lightning start from the ground, and reaches into the sky?

Discovery channel showed me in slow motion...

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by orbsycli

Doesn't some lightning start from the ground, and reaches into the sky?

Discovery channel showed me in slow motion...

Why yes it does. Well, so to speak. Here's a snippet from the Wicky article on lightning:

Originally Posted by Wicky

...The region of high current propagates back up the positive stepped leader into the cloud with a "return stroke" that is the most luminous part of the lightning discharge.

On the iron-rods-in-sand-to-make-glass-objects-when-lightning-strikes, if I were to not try it at home I would not weld an iron teapot to the bottom of the rod and bury it in an attempt to influence the shape of the resulting fulgurite.

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by Turtle

I am collecting some information on researchers who intentionally attract and/or induce lightning. Do not under any circumstances try it at home!

Here you go then with some extraordinary lightning information:
First Rate Lighning Research From University of Florida:
http://www.lightning.ece.ufl.edu
A recent result of theirs concerning gamma rays and lightning:
http://www.lightning.ece.ufl.edu/PDF/Gammarays.pdf
An Hypography thread on Sprites and their relationship with lightning:
sprites

[Turtle]

Worlds longest found fugurite!
http://www.napa.ufl.edu/oldnews/fulgur.htm

And a Web site dedicated to survivors of lightning strikes!
http://www.lightning-strike.org/

[Cedars]

We had some interesting lightning about a week ago. Storms rolled in after sweltering heat. The thing about the lightning in this storm was it sounded like shotguns. Blam Blam. Like two shots going off per strike. It was most unusual.

My brother was very good at finding ground strikes. We would wander our cow pasture after storms and he could find the spots where it hit. Small holes, no bigger than a ground squirrel entrance, but if you reached into them, they only went down a few inches (six at the most). I argued with him over it and between the depth of the hole and him pointing out the little clumps of dirt on the ground around us (2-5 feet from the hole) convinced me he was right. I was never as good as he was at spotting these.

Note: this pasture was well grazed and more like a 20 acre yard than a field of grass.

[Janus]

A few years ago, while on vacation, the family and I were passing through the Black Hills in South Dakota. We camped just a short drive from Mt. Rushmore. In the eveniings ,after dark, they have a little ceremony where they shine lights on the carved faces. Since we were close, we decided to go see it. As we were driving to the monument, we could see thunderstorms in the distance. By the time we got there, they had moved in closer.

Before they light up the faces, they give a presentation talking about the history of Mt. Rushmore. As the talk progressed a cell moved in just behind and above the monument, The resulting lightning flashes would briefly light up or backlight the faces. Every time it happened everyone in the audience would ooh and awe.

By the time they got around to turning on the lights, it was anti-climatic

[Eclogite]

In the event of finding yourself in a thunderstorm on a golf course the following procedure should enable you to make it to safety without being struck by lightning.

Take the number two iron from your golf bag and walk towards the clubhouse holding it as high above your head as possible.

This should ensure you are not struck. The explanation is simple: not even God can hit a number two iron.


Disclaimer: Anyone foolish enough to employ this method will at least demonstrate that adaptive evolution through natural selection is still effective.