Award-winning COC Teacher explains the science of storms.
As I write this, lightning flashes 6 feet above me 60 times a second, at least as far as basic physics goes. If you're near a fluorescent light bulb, you're in the same boat. According to Dr. Antonio Nassar, who teaches physics at Harvard-Westlake School, UCLA, and COC, that soft glow uses the same principle as a lightning storm. Electrical charge is built up on one end, inducing the opposite charge on the opposite end. When the difference is great enough, zap. Repeat as necessary.
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That's only one of many surprising revelations he imparted Friday night during his presentation 'Light, Electricity, and Sound: Understanding Recent Discoveries About Lightning, Thunder, and Rainbows,' hosted by the College of the Canyons Mathematics, Sciences, and Engineering Technologies (MSET) division. Set to a soundtrack that included Pink Floyd, Tchaicovsky, and opera, the presentation included astounding pictures of rare weather events and intriguing demonstrations.
Did you know lightning does strike twice in the same spot? Or that it comes from outer space? And they laughed when I said I was spending my Friday night at a physics lecture.
NASA's rocket attack on the moon recently made headlines around the world, but according to Nassar, that's not the only artillery now being employed in the name of science. Meteorologists are now using rockets to trigger and study lightning.
"To understand lightning, you have to understand all kinds of stuff, electricity, magnetism, fluids, you name it," said Nassar, "Understanding that, maybe one day we can tap a little bit of the power and use it."
He said that in some ways, scientists have discovered more about distant stars than the atmosphere right above us. But new measurement techniques like lightning rockets are changing that. Using sophisticated sensors to monitor the buildup of charge, scientists are able to launch the rocket at exactly the right moment. When they open fire, the lightning bolt, which might have struck any number of upraised golf clubs, suddenly finds a closer target in the rocket and zaps it instead.
That's awesome, but where's the science? Just like Benjamin Franklin's famous kite-key, the rocket is sent up trailing a thin wire tether, which guides the charge to instruments on the ground. This counteracts the natural branching, or 'fractal,' pattern of lightning, which would normally cause it to spread out and discharge in a thousand different places.
Lightning's fractal pattern is another topic of study. The pattern of branching and re-branching is often seen in complex systems like trees, both family and arboreal, and computer systems. Dr. Nassar said even top minds from Wall Street sometimes come knocking on physics' door, asking for models to help predict market behavior.
To learn more about the fractal pattern, physicists have been able to 'freeze' lightning using Plexiglas. Dr. Nassar said charge is a basic property of matter; even electrical 'insulators' like rubber or air can carry current if given enough juice. When a mini lightning bolt is run through a Plexiglas block, it rapidly melts and re-solidifies, essentially making a three-dimensional 'picture' of the fractal pattern.
Along with these new tactics, new discoveries are also being made. While the basic physics of lightning have been known for years, its sheer power remained a mystery. Nassar said it has always been difficult to explain where the enormous amounts of energy came from. The math just didn't add up; it seemed nothing on earth could build up the power required for these awe-inspiring shocks.
As it turns out, the answer is pretty out of this world. Recent findings indicate that cosmic rays from distant dying stars carry high energy protons toward earth, where they collide with air particles. The result is a chain reaction releasing gamma rays, x-rays, and earth-shaking storms. These other-worldly beams provide the power behind the strongest strikes.
"[Cosmic rays] trigger an avalanche of electrons which then strike the clouds below. Inside the cloud, again there's a chain reaction. A bunch of things are triggered, avalanche after avalanche, like a snowball effect. When things move so fast and are suddenly stopped, they release energy, gamma rays and x-rays. And these x-rays trigger more," said Nassar. "When I saw this I said 'wow, this is worth showing to the community, this connection between extraterrestrial things, outer-space, and us. That's incredible.'"
By the end of the presentation, I had to agree with Dr. Ram Manvi, dean of the MSET division at the college, who said "Only a handful of physicists are really good and enthusiastic about explaining their discipline and presenting difficult concepts in simple language-and in an exciting manner. Dr. Nassar definitely belongs to that select group."
Nassar holds a PhD, a master's degree in Physics and a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering and has been published in several top peer-reviewed Physics journals. In addition, he received the Harvard-Westlake School Justin Rascoff Teaching Award for recognition of teaching excellence in 1998, the UCLA Extension Dean's Distinguished Instructor Award in 2006, and most recently an MIT nomination and recognition for excellent teaching in 2008.
