Rain
To understand lightning, we must first be able to understand the basic principles behind the process of rain and the clouds that hold them. As we know, as liquids are heated, they become gaseous, once gaseous, they tend to accumulate together into what we know as clouds. This is because of the Ideal gas law, which gives an approximated idea of how an average gas would act under normal conditions (Ideal 324). Once the gases form a cloud, they are ready to capture and contain water. As gaseous, evaporated water enters a cloud, it is sucked towards the middle, creating the oxydihydral nucleus. This is for all intents and purposes a 'ball' or 'blob' of now-liquid water, which will drench any object that passes through it, such as planes or weather balloons. As liquid water continues to accumulate in the oxydihydral nucleus, the full cloud becomes darker, as a result of less light being able to pass through the liquid water nucleus. Eventually, the cloud becomes so filled with liquid water, that it begins to soak through the bottom or sides of the cloud, and rain starts to descend towards the earth. Randy Billings-Clyde showed in his research, that acid rain is a result of harmful and acidic gases and pollutants being used to compose the gaseous outer layer of cloud (Billings-Clyde 204).
Lightning and Thunder
Now that we understand the ideas behind rain and clouds, we can move on to the exciting part: lightning. Those that will remember their high school chemistry class will remember that electrons are negatively charged subatomic particles which make up the orbitals of atoms. As clouds fly through the air at surprising velocities, we can easily understand how the water contained within them can be rapidly spun and knocked around. After too long, this water agitation causes massive amounts of electrons to be stripped from the water, and an electric current is created. This electric current passes to and fro inside the oxydihydral nucleus, until finally rain begins. Once the rain begins, the electrons that form the electric charge within the oxydihydral nucleus shoot out to a nearby raindrop. Once the raindrop is hit, the charge immediately jumps to another nearby raindrop. This process continues rapidly, resulting in a massive electric discharge that creates the lightning you see. The forks you see in lightning occur occasionally when the charge splits off in multiple directions, to multiple different rain drops. The sound of thunder that you hear with lightning is actually the sound of each of the rain drops being instantly and violently being destroyed. According to a scientist that works at the University of Cambridge, this is the only instance of matter being completely destroyed, in no other instance does matter get completely removed from the universe (Hawking 206). This explains the incredibly loud sound created.
Metal and Rubber
We all know that metal is incredibly good at attracting lightning, but can you explain why? Turns out that metals are conductors, meaning that they are more likely to give away electrons from their valence electrons, than to take them. This means that they can pass around electrons incredibly well, meaning they are really good at holding a charge. This means that as the lightning approaches the ground, it is more likely to want to strike a metal object than any other object, as it is much easier to pass through. Now rubber is the opposite. Being what is called a 'noble gas', rubber is extremely hard for an electron to pass through. This is because noble gasses have their entire valence shell filled, meaning that they are less inclined to give away their electrons. This makes rubber quite good for avoiding lightning strikes. A scientist at the University of UT, Austin discovered that those using a metal umbrella were five times more likely to be struck by lightning than those with a rubber umbrella (Washingbeard 124).
Green, Ted. Lighnting: The Silent Killer. University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2002. Print.
Billings-Clyde, Randy. Effects of Cloud Composition When Exposed to Dihydrogen-monoxide. London: Oxford U.P., 2003. Print.
Hawkings, Steve. Lightning: why it MATTERS. Cambridge, 1843. Print.
Washingbeard, Jhon. Lead Umbrellas: Directors Cut. University of UT, Austin, 2014. Print.
