An Expert Corrects Neil on His Explanation of Lightning

Honestly, I'd love a whole episode about lightning and electricity in general with this guy and a cameo from his dad. I had a book on lightning as a child that fascinated me, since I grew up hearing stories about how my dad was struck by lightning and my uncle was blown across a room while working as an electrician. Then as a teen, I was in a car with my dad when it was struck by lightning. Allegedly, even my grandfather had a freaky history with electricity, so this is some weird "cursed by Thor" situation, haha!

But seriously, having a book like that as a kid really helped me to get past family jokes about curses and understand the science behind it all.

There ARE MANY wayS (plural)

Sunlight passing through the atmosphere produces static charge which pools in the clouds like a battery. That's my theory.

This was fantastic thank you

Neil loves his own voice

fantastic, thank you.

Excellent brief presentation. With the cloud (normally) having the negative charge, this attracts a positive charge in conductors closer to the cloud. When the discharge occurs, those positive charges in antennas, phone lines, fences, etc. then discharge to ground. Those currents are much less than the main discharge through their own path.. This might be only 40 amps. This however is sufficient to vaporize very fine wire which can be the antenna winding of an AM radio. I have observed this damage, which was easily repaired. This may have first been observed by Ben Franklin seeing an electric discharge, which was very much smaller than a primary strike, so he lived to tell about it. If this is not already named, it could be called the Franklin-Bell effect.

This guy was awesome, to explain something so complex, and deliver it so most can understand exactly what was going on... is a talent in itself

He was a huge fan of yours it seemed... you should get him back on for other areas. Or id be interested in how come, this cant be recreated .. such massive energy delivered ... why cant we harness it? Or recreate it!

Awesome freaking video with great edits. Supporting what the expert was explaining is so important and makes this videos a pure joy. 😊

How can be the negative electrones getting down and the more heavy positive ions go up in the clouds?

Chuck you are the icing on the cake. You bring the funny every time. I am a lightning photographer and have captured 100’s of bolts coming down. One thing I can say is a constant is that lightning does hit the same place more then 3 to 4 times. I try to shoot all the lightning bolts on my DLSR but I also use my iPhone using an app called ILightning cam 2, you always have to respect the storms and know when you have to take shelter. I have also captured lightning from 400 feet from my drone

At just 1 million volts, and 50,000 amperes, that's 50 Billion Watts dissipated. If there was only a way to capture that much power.

Every change of state even heating could change the charge, but the jiggling of the wind, and most importantly the energy from the sun, and even the magnetic field all of these are going to affect the charges

You can easily find the shortest path to the charge because all fields extended indefinitely, forever, and lightning is just an extreme amplification of of a single electron

I have a question? Wouldn't space war be nigh impossible, because all those missed rounds would go off forever into deep space until they hit something. If a bunch of shots missed in the same direction (like is the case when two armies are shooting at each other) wouldn't all those missed round eventually bombard some distant location in some far off distant time?

If you're in water, being at the surface will get you shocked.
Electricity travels across the surface.

❤

Dr. Tyson, "you can't know all" Steven hawking said. Do you still remember that saying? If you do, then you can't be volatile regarding the vagueness right.😂😂

This is what science is all about

Nothing wrong with being wrong as long as we all learn.

They did, he crashed and burned 😂😂😂😂😂😂

Scientists and in general super educated and well spoken people are way more facinating, because I’m a as smart as a gold fish.

Dr.Farouk Rizk and Amir Rizk are Odin and Thor.

Even more respect for Tyson because he can admit when he's wrong and has someone on the show telling him why.

I have a question. I was out on my boat fishing and it was cloudy but not raining yet nor was there lightning. I raised my rod and I hear a distinct electrical buzzing sound. Fearing a lightning strike, I packed up and ran to the other side of the large lake. Minute later there was a large lightning discharge close to where I had been. What was the buzzing when I raised my rod?😅

What do we suppose to do if we are hiking in the open and there is nowhere to hide?

My brother, who's an electrical engineer, once said to me, in passing, that lightning technology is such a special field that only an expert should be allowed to install protective equipment in structures.

Love this guy! Bring him on for a full episode.

Gotta give a shoutout to downward positive strikes, which are much rarer. These strikes have no branches or flickering, just one singular discharge. Sounds like a cannon from the heavens.

There is a very strong updraft inside a thundercloud...its this updraft that causes hailstones, by carrying freezing water drops higher into the cloud where more ice accumulates on them before they become heavy enough to fall through the updraft and reach the ground. Could it be this updraft that separates the charges....the positive water drops are lighter than the ice from which they separate and so they get carried up to the top.

Takes a lot of guts to admit you're wrong and be corrected on your own show. Big respect to you and thank you for sharing this.

It's really annoying that some "science educators" feel the need to anthropomorphise everything as if they're five years old or think their audience has a mental age of five. It's bad enough when they apply it to evolution (ex., as if aposematism were the result of some conscious deliberation), but applying it to electricity is just ridiculous.

The lighting doesn't "want" to do anything, nor is it "looking for" anything. Atoms and charges interact only with their immediate neighbours. The "lighting" is just an emergent phenomenon resulting from the sum of those local interactions. There's no "wanting" or "seeking", and the lightning is certainly not "doing some physics calculation". Cringeworthy.

electro man has a nice 5 in line bass !

As usual, awesome!!!🎉

You never learn when you’re right. Being wrong can be kind of awesome, because it means you get to learn properly what you only thought you knew, before. I think this video is an excellent example of just how good and satisfying that can be.

Would live this to see this extended to include the explanation of the "sprites" that are seen from space in storms shooting up into space from the clouds. I have seen videos but no details if they are understood and also touch on "ball lighting.

I would like to know or hear what he has still say about Orbs

bilim yanılma değil yanlışları düzeltme sanatıdır teşekkürler neil ve chuck bilim ve eğlenceyi bir araya getirip bizim gibi cahil maymunları biraz daha bilen insana yaklaştırdığınız için...

Too many lengthy adds, I disliked it for this reason.

This has been known

Funny that I just watched this video, and today I passed by the IREQ of Hydro-Québec, where his father, Farouk, used to work.

But is he correctig him if it was a question at first? What i see is 3 cientifics talking to each other and learning new things.

But what if you can't go inside?
If you are in a car?
If you are in a tent? Or a caravan?
What if you ARE in that playing field just standing there?
Here's one you may not consider. I worked on a farm for seasonable work. Anyone working on a farm like this (generally 3 months, or under 6 months) knows you work in the fields in ALL weather. Which means if lightning is happening YOU STILL WORK. You cannot go inside! I asked, they said no. I've worked in lightning a lot. Its not like no produce/crops today due to lightning, its produce as per normal.
Tractor, in the fields (in the mud) or on their sorting/picking machinery in the field.
When you can't 'go inside', is common for really all of us.

That slow motion lightning also acts like nerves synapses connecting.

Wow i understand it now completely 😮

StarTalkians, are there other topics you WISHED we'd revisit and create a refreshed episode on? Let us know in the comments below!