ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS:
Assignment 2: Description
You will write a description for a general, public audience of a cloud-to-ground lightning strike.
You need to include enough text to make sure that the description is thorough (and accurate), and you need to include at least one visual reference. I cannot stress enough how helpful visuals are in descriptions. If you only use one, you are short-changing yourself.
Things to keep in mind:
● Clarity. Does what you’re saying make sense? Ground streamers and ionized air particles and 1.21 gigawatts can get confusing. Remember that the average American reads at an 8th-grade level. NOTE: This does not mean to not use scientific terms, it means to explain them in a way that a non-scientific person can understand. The challenge of this assignment is not brevity…it’s clarity.
● Where to begin? Some background information will be necessary. Your audience may not understand the basics as well as you. There’s no right answer to how much background to provide, but your choice must make sense and be consistent with the rest of your document.
● Audience. Are you using appropriate tone and terminology, given that you are writing to a non-technical crowd?
What you will turn in:
● One document of indeterminate length. The length of the paper is however long you think the description needs to be to convey all the necessary information. However, conciseness is important – if you turn in a 20-page paper, your grade will suffer for it. The paper should be formatted to look like a professional document – type size and font and line spacing are all up to your discretion. Your paper MUST include at least one visual reference. And I don’t mean that you tack on a cool picture of a lightning strike on a title page and call it a day. The image must be part of the main body of the document, it must be referenced in the text, and it must help to clarify the text in some way.
Submit drafts to peer review group, submit final to Blackboard.
HOW TO WORK ON THIS ASSIGNMENT (EXAMPLE ESSAY / DRAFT)
A thunderstorm can provide the intriguing phenomena of lightning strikes. Lightning is an atmospheric discharge of static electricity that produces a dazzling flash of light and a deafening rumbling sound. When lightning travels from the cloud to the ground, it is known as a cloud-to-ground lightning strike. A non-technical audience will be able to understand the scientific principles by reading this paper’s straightforward and succinct exposition of what happens during a cloud-to-ground lightning strike.
Let’s begin by providing some background information. When cold air comes in and warm, humid air rises, thunderstorms are created. A huge, unstable cloud is produced as the warm and cold air masses combine. With negative charges at the bottom and positive charges at the top, this cloud contains an excess of electrical charge. A lightning strike happens when the charge difference gets too big.
A passage from the cloud to the ground is created during a cloud-to-ground lightning strike, allowing the extra charge to be dissipated. This route is known as a leader. The leader generates a path of ionized air particles as it advances toward the Earth. The electrical current excites these particles, which then emit light to produce the vivid flash of lightning. The sound of thunder is the result of the air rapidly expanding and contracting as a result of the lightning bolt’s incredibly high heat.
A cloud-to-ground lightning strike’s complete sequence takes place in a split second. The leader can be many miles long and moves at high to 200,000 kilometers per hour. When the leader hits the ground, there is a significant electrical discharge that can produce currents of up to 100,000 amps. A plasma channel is produced when the air is heated by the electrical discharge to temperatures of up to 30,000 degrees Celsius. In the image below, this plasma channel appears as a thin, bright line.
[Insert a designated plasma channel and an image of a cloud-to-ground lightning strike]
The electrical current can move from the cloud to the ground thanks to the plasma channel. Additionally, it is what causes the thunder we hear. We hear thunder because a shockwave is produced when the air immediately surrounding a plasma channel becomes heated and rapidly expands. The time it takes for us to hear the thunder depends on how far away the lightning strike was from where we are. We see the lightning first and hear the thunder later because light travels more quickly than sound.
In conclusion, a cloud-to-ground lightning strike during a thunderstorm is an amazing and potent natural phenomenon. The procedure involves a leader establishing a plasma channel that enables the electrical current to pass from the cloud to the ground by forming a passage of ionized air particles. We hear thunder because of the shockwave that is produced by the electrical discharge’s extremely high heat. The plasma channel and the intense lightning flash can be seen in the image below, which is an illustration of a cloud-to-ground lightning strike.
[Insert a picture of a lightning strike from a cloud to the ground with a labeled plasma channel and a powerful bolt of lightning]
We believe that a clearer knowledge of what transpires during a cloud-to-ground lightning strike has been achieved by this account. Keep in mind to keep secure during thunderstorms and, if feasible, find shelter inside.
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