Is lightning photons or electrons?

The emission of photons is caused by acceleration of charged particles (air in the lightning becomes partially ionized – a mixture between ions and electrons = plasma) which is called thermal radiation.

Is lightning a photon?

Why is lightning colored? (gas excitations and incandesence) Gas excitations are a form of luminescence, photons of light being emitted as excited electrons drop back to their initial energy state. Unlike incandescence, luminescence may occur at low temperatures. Lightning over a farmhouse, left.

Are photons charged electrons?

A photon is massless, has no electric charge, and is a stable particle. In a vacuum, a photon has three possible polarization states. The photon is the gauge boson for electromagnetism, and therefore all other quantum numbers of the photon (such as lepton number, baryon number, and flavour quantum numbers) are zero.

What is a photons charge?

A photon is a tiny particle that comprises waves of electromagnetic radiation. Photons have no charge, no resting mass, and travel at the speed of light.

Does lightning come up from the ground?

Cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning comes from the sky down, but the part you see comes from the ground up. A typical cloud-to-ground flash lowers a path of negative electricity (that we cannot see) towards the ground in a series of spurts. Objects on the ground generally have a positive charge under a typical thunderstorm.

Why is the ground positively charged?

The soil and water in the ground below the cloud is electrically conductive, with ions and electrons that can move under the influence of an electric field. The negatively-charged cloud repels free electrons in the soil, leaving positive charged ions behind.

Is lightning a solid liquid or gas?

Created when positive and negative charges in the atmosphere equalize, lightning is neither solid, liquid, nor gas; it’s the fourth state of matter, known as plasma.

What is photon electron?

Photons and electrons are both fundamental particles, the former of electromagnetic waves and the latter of atoms. Together, they are can cause the flow of electricity. However, they are different in many aspects: Electron. Photon.

Is photon negatively charged?

All of the bits of energy that are associated with these waves are photons. Photons have neither negative nor positive charge. They are not matter and have no mass.