Why is electricity so hard to understand? (1989)

Re:Why is electricity so hard to understand? (1989) by macksd on Saturday March 06, 2021 @08:52AM (#26367329)

Correct. In a related concept, I had a professor that explained it as a combination of electron flow in one direction, and "hole" [1] flow in the other. Either way of looking at it is valid.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron_hole

edit: I'm not sure, on second thought, how far you can really go with that. Lightning clearly has directionality to it.

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Re:Why is electricity so hard to understand? (1989) by wbeaty on Thursday March 11, 2021 @01:56AM (#26421108)

But lightning is where the gas has broken down, turning into plasma. Lightning is a growing conductor, like a motorized antenna on an oldschool car radio.

The growth of lightning is much like a growing metal dendrite-crystal.

Also, when lightning leaps rapidly upwards, the electrons INSIDE the lightning are flowing slowly downwards. The extending tip of a lightning-streamer is not an electric current, it's more like the moving tip of a growing fracture.

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