Lightning

[z00se]

Ok so lightning on a basic level is known to 'travel the path of least resistance' to balance it's self out so that negative and positive charges are balanced. I am more specifically interested in fork lightning, or lightning that shoots from the clouds to the earth, and how does it know where the path of least resistance is?

 

We know that lightning often strikes trees or tall buildings, but how does it know to go towards the trees or high buildings from many km's up in the sky. It seems that trees or high buildings are not necessarily 'just in the way' because they get hit more frequently than the earth it's self. Lightning will even prefer to hit a person 1.8m tall, such a small distance above the ground compared to the lightnings path from up in the clouds, rather than just hit the ground directly.

 

Tall buildings have copper metal rods on top of them to attract the lightning to them to prevent the building being struck, and they transmit the energy to the earth. But how does the lightning know to travel towards the rod, or indeed the building to begin with?

 

Lightning also seems to travel left and right on it's way to earth, perhaps because of denser condensation in the air providing a better conductor for the electricity, but this doesn't explain why it more frequently hits tall structures.

 

Here are some possible answers i found...

 

Send feelers out - Small electrical currents scout out the space in front of the main bolt, and if the scouting currents hit a good conductor suddenly the scout current becomes the main bolt and so that is how it finds it's way.

 

Earth energy rising - Although we only see the main lightning bolt, earth energy could be rising from the earth, through buildings, and especially through good conductors, and reach out higher to the sky attracting the bolt towards them.

 

Like water - Water will flow down the easiest path but it may not always be truly most easiest path. Perhaps a small flow of water runs down a rocky cliff, zig zagging from left to right along a small valley cut in the cliff face, yet if the water knew that if it could only raise 2mm above the lip of the up most valley it could fall without friction (well air friction not friction along the rockface) directly straight down to the bottom of the cliff, instead of zig zagging all the way down. A small amount of extra energy to get over that lip would be overly compensated by the extra energy recieved by being pulled down by gravity while free falling down to the bottom. Therefore i don't think it is like water because...

 

Spark plug - Sparks go from the cathode to the anode. If there are several different anodes, one made of copper, one gold and one aluminium, all equal distances from the cathode the spark will go to the gold because it is the best conductor. But how does the spark know without trying first? It's as if the electricity knows ahead of time. Now what if we try to trick the spark by having all anodes going to earth except the gold one which goes to a piece of wood (terrible conductor). The spark will now go to the copper because it is the 2nd best conductor and is earthed. Yet there is no first spark to the gold where it realises 'uh oh, this is the wrong one' then changes it's mind, no it goes straight for the copper. So how does it know?

 

Can electricity look ahead? Does it have intelligence? Does then water have intelligence because it can find an easy path down the rock, yet not as intelligent as electricity because it can't know what is beyond what is directly in front of it?

 

Why is this relevent to the tao bums? Tao encompasses everything and therefore lightning also. Qi is energy, lightning is energy. Beyond the stillness is the ability to use your internal universe as a lab to discover laws of the external universe. I would like to know how you find the chi to react within yourselves, how does the energy know where to go, what more can we learn about electricity? Are any answers you suggest experiences of your own cultivation, from scientific backgrounds you may have or just what you believe to be true?

 

This has been bugging me all day, thanks for your input!

[z00se]

hmm... perhaps it is like a magnet with the north and south poles, except the lightning bolt has none or very little weight because it is only energy and light and because it is soo much energy it's just busting to get out, and even though it has a long way to travel, because of it's tiny or no weight it is pulled so easily by the opposite pole. With such energy bundled up as in a lightning bold it shoots out to the closest earth and strongest conductor of earth force. Although it would have huge resistance by travelling through the air it just NEEDS to neutralize it's self. Any boy that was 16 once would know the feeling haha

 

 

[Captain Mar-Vell]

...

 

I felt like lightning struck my head.

 

My head caught fire.

 

But it wasn't lightning.

 

The electro magnetic sphere(s) are very mysterious.

 

I felt there was a grounding, and that I had become a sort of lightning rod, connecting heaven and earth.

 

It seemed as if enormous energies coursed through me.

 

And insights, also.

 

There's a lot more to tell.

 

Believe it or not.

 

...

Edited December 13, 2013 by Captain Mar-Vell

[Brian]

This would be a good starting-point, z00se.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning

 

It provides a pretty well fleshed-out description and also acknowledges that understanding is incomplete.

[soaring crane]

I think of lightning as the meridian between two acupoints. The points are really there but the line is just one of many possible paths.

[Brian]

As to why the preference to tall things and lightning rods...

 

Virtually everything on the planet conducts electricity. This means that electrical charges can flow either through the material or across the surface. There are some exceptions -- substances in which the flow is GREATLY reduced -- but they are rare in nature, so rocks, trees, people, buildings, animals, whatever, they all accumulate and/or flow charges.

 

So imagine the earth and sky to be two parallel metal plates with a charge imbalance. The positive charges on one plate will be attracted by the negative charges on the other plate while like charges repel each other. If there are irregularities in the surface, the charges on the "hills" are closer to the other plate than the charges in the "valleys" and are attracted or repelled more strongly. Because the charges can move, they "slide" towards the "hills" or towards the "valleys," depending on whether they are being attracted or repelled.

 

A treetop, therefore, will have a higher charge density than the flat ground at its base. A upward-facing pointed stick (or an umbrella) will have its maximum charge density at the tip. A lightning rod on the top of a tall building will develop a very large charge density as an electrically charged cloud moves over it because charges from the ground will accumulate at the tip of the lightning rod.

 

The electrical charges in the lowest surfaces of the passing cloud interact with the electrical fields of the charges below and are most strongly attracted to those spots with the greatest charge density. There is a force exerted on each charge in the cloud by each charge on the earth, and the forces simply add up. Add all the little force vectors together and you can calculate the direction in which the charge moves next.

 

It's a little more complicated than that but this is the basic idea.

[z00se]

Hmmm yes.. i think that is a good description brian, it seems the most likely.

 

Thanks everyone for your replies i can now rest at ease today hehe

[Nungali]

There is lightening here now ... what is it?

 

It is the legs of the Lightning Brothers

 

http://www.kanopystreaming.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/product_thumb_main/products_images/1088295_000.jpg

 

They come out of earth

 

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8083/8386941491_c171ac015f_z.jpg

 

They travel through desert country and stalk over the mountains … high up , above the clouds.

 

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8117/8674748066_955db0d62f_z.jpg

 

Now they are here, walking around, stepping down from the high clouds onto hill top and high points. Great strides, wide apart, striking raggedly down they walk, two of them together but some distance apart. Then another after them, then a third. Why so much ? Is it a meeting place, a ceremony?

 

http://australia.gov.au/sites/default/files/agencies/culture/library/images/site_images/dreamtimestilts.jpg

 

Then they move on and leave behind their sign

 

http://www.thereviewcrew.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/double_rainbow_app.jpg

Edited December 14, 2013 by Nungali

[Captain Mar-Vell]

...

 

Ha ha ha!

 

I see the Stride of the Ancient Giants!

 

Watch out!

 

Their Lightning might strike you too.

 

...

Edited December 14, 2013 by Captain Mar-Vell

[Captain Mar-Vell]

...

 

Should I post this?

 

Not much of a gift, but it is mine to you.

 

I stopped my breath, maybe my heart too.

 

I think so.

 

I entered into Brahman.

 

Void.

 

Black Hole.

 

Source.

 

Unoriginated.

 

Unconditioned.

 

Uncreated.

 

Potential.

 

0

 

Then I was reborn.

 

Yowch!

 

I'm,born!

 

I hopped and skipped upon the earth then, oh yes.

 

It seemed I was struck on the head by Lightning that was not lightning.

 

My head caught on Fire yet it was not fire.

 

Enormous energies coursed upwards through my body blasting the top of my head off.

 

Insights poured in.

 

Even some sort of dialogue.

 

I felt I had become a Lightning Rod.

 

A Conductor.

 

Between Heaven and Earth.

 

A Bridge.

 

It happened completely by chance, and yet it happened as a result of everything that has happened and everything that will happen.

 

Just like everything else.

 

Or perhaps there was something to that time, that place, that person.

 

If you ever seek to do anything to precipitate such an experience, I would advise caution.

 

You ought to be prepared to accept the consequences.

 

quick edit: Don't ever do the stoppin' yer breath thing! That would be stupid.

 

...

[Captain Mar-Vell]

...

 

 

...

[joeblast]

This has been bugging me all day, thanks for your input!

Everything you want to know about how/why this manifests is well explained in the mystery of the double slit experiment. Lightning doesnt "know" what the path of least resistance is - the path will simply a priori manifest in the moment of discharge. Forking happens when there's enough amplitude potential to manifest both paths.

 

Lovin' Feynman's lectures. Book 3 begins with QM and the double slit experiment. There's much simpler descriptions out there, depending on how technical you want to get.

 

http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/III_01.html

Edited December 14, 2013 by joeblast

[Brian]

My three favorite books just happen to come in one convenient sleeve, joeblast. Didn't know volumes I & III were now available online.

 

<bookmarked>

 

[SonOfTheGods]

Lightning also manifests around active volcanoes and mushroom clouds.

Ball lightning is also an awesome power display.

[joeblast]

once again, coefficients of friction

[Captain Mar-Vell]

...

All goes according to Moon Witches Plan,

Heart of Gold revives Rac Shade, Changing Man!

 

ELECTRIFYING FIRST ISSUE!

 

 

...

 

ps i love my new avatar.

Edited December 17, 2013 by Captain Mar-Vell