Blog 55 - Fascinating thing in Nature.

I would have to go with Lightning as the most interesting in nature to me. I’m sure we’ve all been told what causes lightning, but in case you forgot, let me refresh your memory. In a cloud, when the warmer air rises, it tends to give up electrons (negatively charged particles) and as a result, becomes positively charged. So, at the bottom of the cloud, all the electrons that have been released gather in the cold air. The bottom of the cloud continues to get a greater negative charge.

At the same time, the ground is mostly positively charged. When the negative charge is big enough, a lightning flash occurs. This is because it is greater than the insulation in the air, which prevents it from happening. The lightning flash is nature’s way to maintain equilibrium; when lightning strikes, the charges are equally distributed between the cloud and the earth.

It is amazing to see the way natures achieves this. Who would have thought that something so beautiful, so striking (wow, an unplanned pun) is actually quite useful. Then again, almost everything that happens in this world happens for a reason. Lightning is not always good. Sometimes, lightning can cause forest fires, and a direct hit can kill a human being.

Still, it fascinates me. Sometime ago I found a windows 7 theme that had several lightning backgrounds. Five minutes later, it was my theme. Lightning is one of the rawest forms of energy transfer. I wouldn’t want to come into contact with it, but it sure is really nice to look at.