Lightning and the Electrostatic Phenomena

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the positive and negative nature of electricity, which was first identified by Benjamin Franklin. This paper details the basics of lightning, which is a natural occurrence, generated through the two interactive processes of tribo-electricity and electrostatic induction. This paper delves into how thunder clouds are formed by ice and water. This paper also contains an illustration, detailing the origins of lightning, as well as a table listing the dielectric constants of various insulators, relevant to this particular topic.

From the Paper:

"In a thunder cloud, the two dissimilar materials are ice and liquid water. Most thunderclouds' bottoms are at about 5km above Earth's surface, where it is usually sufficiently cold to freeze any liquid water. Powerful winds circulate up and down the interior of a thunderstorm, bearing up small drops of freezing water which collide with descending hail stones. Even though these two objects are made from water, the fact that one is large and solidly frozen while one is small and only partially frozen means that they occupy different positions on the tribolectric scale. The hail stones tend to become negatively charged and the smaller particles positively so. The negative charge accumulates at the base of the thunderstorm, and the positive at its top. In essence, thunderstorms act like immense Van de Graaff generators."

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