What are Saint Elmo's fires? Detailed answer

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What are Saint Elmo's fires? Detailed answer

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What are Saint Elmo's fires?

"St. Elmo's fire" is one of the many interesting phenomena associated with lightning, and in order to understand it, we must remember what happens when lightning flashes.

It's all about the presence of two types of particles - positive and negative. These two types of particles are strongly attracted to each other, and if they are separated, they will tend to combine again. When a strong negative or positive charge is created in the cloud, it causes an opposite charge down on the ground. Electrons begin to move from the area of negative charge to the area of positive charge. They gradually form a channel or channels of charged particles between the ground and the cloud, and when a large wave of electrons is formed, a flash of lightning occurs.

Now suppose that instead of letting the charges build up until the voltage gets too high and has to be discharged, there would be another way to help the charges from below, from the ground, seep to the top. Instead of a lightning discharge, the charge would leak out in the form of a "brush discharge". That's exactly how the lightning rod works, by the way. The top of the lightning rod helps the electrons leak out.

"St. Elmo's fire" is the glow that accompanies a similar "brush discharge" of atmospheric electricity. It appears as a twinkle at the end of spiky objects such as church bell towers or ship masts, and appears here most often during a storm. We usually hear crackling or hissing.

Another place where "St. Elmo's fire" is often seen is on propeller blades, and on wingtips, windshields, and on the nose of aircraft when they are flying in dry snowy weather or close to where a thunderstorm is. This electrical charge can sometimes be so strong that it causes electrostatic phenomena in the aircraft's radio.

Author: Likum A.

Random interesting fact from the Great Encyclopedia:

When did horse racing start?

Equestrian competitions are one of the oldest sports that bring joy to a person. Horse races were held in the most ancient centuries. They settled in Egypt, Babylon, Syria. Homer described the Greek chariot competitions that took place around the XNUMXth century BC. e. Modern horse racing as we know it originated in England. This is due to the development of breeding horse breeding there.

Equestrian competitions were organized in England as early as the XNUMXth century, but it was only at the end of the XNUMXth and beginning of the XNUMXth centuries that breeding of horses for sporting purposes began. Oriental stallions were brought to England from the Arabian Peninsula, from Turkey and Persia. Stallions from these countries have been bred to English mares. Three of these stallions played a very important role. Two Arabian stallions were named Darley and Godolphin, Turkish - Byerley. These three stallions are the early ancestors of all modern high-bred horses.

In the 1751th century, horse racing became a very important sport in England. In 1793 the Jockey Club was founded. In XNUMX, the first issue of the General Pedigree of Thoroughbred Horses was published. It traced the pedigree of all high-bred horses.

Horse racing has long been known as the "sport of kings". This name arose because horse racing was organized by the royal family, and also because only very noble and wealthy people were engaged in this sport in the country.

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