NATS 1870 Lecture Notes - Lecture 23: Lightning, Photon
20 Jun 2016
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Document Summary
Nanotechnology manufacturing process, where carbon atoms are deposited onto sheet of aluminum foil. If done with carefully controlled temperature, pressure etc, scientists can grow the nanotube, atom by atom, to very high aspect ratio, creating a forest of nanotubes. Once a photon enters vanta black, it is essentially trapped by the material, and will eventually be absorbed. Lightning happens because of the electrification of clouds: A negative charge builds at the bottom of a cloud, and a positive charge at the top of a cloud. The ground under a negatively charged cloud bottom will develop a positive charge. As the negative and positive charges accumulate, a voltage develops. This strong voltage will result in the air molecules between the cloud and the ground becoming ionized creating a path for the lightning to follow. The ionized areas of air are called step leaders . A leader will eventually contact the ground, and complete the path for the lightning to follow.
