eli5 Why is lightning purple? As opposed to how electricity usually appears yellow.
In: Physics
Electricity doesn’t have a color. Electricity is made of electrons, while light is made of photons.
When you “see” electricity, you are actually seeing some side effect of electricity, not the electricity itself. When electricity flows through a gas, it causes the gas to become ionized, and the ionized gas glows. So the color of the ionization is not a function of the electricity, but a function of the gas through which the electricity flows.
Our atmosphere is composed mostly of nitrogen and oxygen. Both of these gases glow blue-white when ionized. If our atmosphere was composed of hydrogen, lightning would be bright yellow. If our atmosphere was neon, lightning would be bright red. If our atmosphere was mercury gas, lightning would be ultra-violet.
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