Full Bolt

Does height affect the electric shock value of a lightning bolt?

I need to answer this because for my homework i had to answer a friends question and we haven;t done anything on lightning or anything to do with that yet. Please give me more detail than 'yes' but don't give me the full homework, i just need a few notes.

That is a very good question. I have been sitting and thinking about an answer for the past half hour and have come to the conclusion that the science community is unlikely to have a definitive answer for this question.

First, I will add to the question but I have to in order to even begin to provide an answer. I believe by height, do you mean does the area where the lighting forms or initiates, determine the shock value of a lightning bolt. The other thing I am not sure of is by shock value, due you mean the amount of current or the voltage or how much damage it can do?

I will attempt to answer making the assumptions that it means the height the entire lightning channel from the cloud to where it is dissipated by either the ground, the air, or even another cloud, and by shock value, the amount of the electrical current that flows through the same channel.

Making those assumption, my direct answer to your question is, that no one knows. And if you can answer this quesiton it is likely that you would be honored with a PHD in atomospheric physics from any major university.

Lightning is one of the least understood of all the atmospheric phenomena. We know that it is a static electric discharge that is caused by the separation of charges within the thunderstorm. The length, and amount of current is often related to the interaction of the updraft/downdraft interface within the thunderstorm. The faster speed of the separation of the chrages often but not always causes more frequent but not necessarily more current within thunderstorm strikes that it produces.

Even though research continues on lightning, it very difficult and answers are slow and difficult in obtaining. The best reference I know of is this book.

Lightning: Physics and Effects By Vladimir A. Rakov, Martin A. Uman.

It is not a easy book to read and very few people are likely to appreciate it, or understand it well.

They are the best at this time in lightning research. The book is expensive but is considered a valuable reference in lighting research as we currently know it.

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