Lightning

12.11.2024

Lightning

Why in the news?                     

             Climate change is making lightning strikes around the world more common and deadlier.

About Lightning:

• It strikes are possible because electrical charges can build up in a cloud beyond the ability of air to keep resisting their movement.
• It is an electrical discharge between charged particles in a cloud and the ground.
• It can occur between opposite charges within the thunderstorm cloud (intra-cloud lightning) or between opposite charges in the cloud and on the ground (cloud-to-ground lightning).
• It is one of the oldest observed natural phenomena on Earth. It can be seen in volcanic eruptions, extremely intense forest fires, surface nuclear detonations, heavy snowstorms, large hurricanes, and obviously, thunderstorms.
• While a lightning strike occurs between a cloud and an object on or near the ground, it takes the path of least resistance, which means it moves towards the closest object with the highest electric potential.

What is a lightning rod?

• It is a metallic rod (usually copper) that protects a structure from lightning damage by intercepting flashes and guiding their currents into the ground.
• Lightning rods are pointy and pointed things create stronger electric fields near them.
• The lightning rod is connected to a wire that drops through the length of the building into the ground, where it dissipates its electric charges into its surroundings.

                                                                 Source: The Hindu

Which one of the following natural phenomena can also produce lightning?

A.Volcanic eruptions

B.Large hurricanes

C.Intense Forest fires

D.All of the above

Answer D