Word: lightninged
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A new theory about lightning suggests a cosmic-ray connection
The ancient Greeks believed that lightning bolts were hurled from the heavens by a wrathful Zeus. Modern science has shown that the bolts are actually great electrical discharges between clouds and earth. A new theory by a Johns Hop kins scientist indicates that there might be some truth in the...
Scientists generally agree on the basic cause of lightning: the buildup of enough voltage, or electrical potential, between clouds and earth (or be tween different clouds) to overcome the resistance of the insulating layer of air between them. The buildup occurs when electrons, perhaps carried by falling water droplets, migrate...
Despite their basic understanding of the phenomenon, scientists have been at a loss to explain how droplets within the cloud-or any other mechanism-can generate the tremendous potential (about 100 million volts) necessary to produce lightning or why the bolt follows so jagged a path. The answers may well...
That sets the stage for the return surge of current along the same pathway, visible as a flash of lightning.