Lightning

Abstract

By the use of some new experimental data of the resistance of conducting vapors the conclusion is reached that the current in a streak of lightning oscillates. Starting with experimental value of 4500 volts per centimeter, as the average potential gradient for the electrostatic field between the thunder-cloud and earth, some astonishingly high values for the factors involved in lightning resulted. For more than a decade the average current in a lightning stroke of 10,000 amperes has been accepted. The calculations in this paper show a value as great as one-and-a-half-million amperes. Some of the other factors correspondingly large are as follows: The energy stored in the electrostatic field is 700 kilowatt-hours. The maximum power expended in the discharge is 860-billion kilowatts. The frequency for the particular stroke calculated, one mile long, is lower than former estimates,¿ about 50,000 cycles per second. Calculations were made of a bolt of lightning which struck a wooden pole protected by a No. 6 wire. The results agree with the independent calculations of the factors given above of a lightning stroke. In later the subject will be pursued further, and the equation will be recorded.