eli5 Why is lightning purple? As opposed to how electricity usually appears yellow.
In: Physics
Lightning is ionized air. It’s very hot, which gives it a slightly blueish tint white glow. Nitrogen also adds some purple hints to it.
Man made electrical arcs have two components. One, ionized air, excalty like lightning. Will appear a similar colour. This is the arc itself. The second is cooler molten metal, which will glow orange. It’s a colder temperature, so glows an orange white, like a light bulb. The sparks of an electrical arc are molten metal flying off. That’s not the colour of “electricity” (vaguely meaning the colour of whatever path the electricity is following) you are seeing. It’s a side effect of the heat. There is no “electricity” in the yellow sparks. Only in the white lighting like glow of the arc itself. You get the same effect with friction, say banging a hammer on metal or using a metal grinder. It’s just small bits of hot, glowing metal.
Lightning obviously has no metals wires to spark, so no yellow. Though where lightning actually hits something on the ground, it can definitely cause yellow sparks to fly.
Although that’s not to say the white glow of lightning is the colour of electricity. That’s just the colour of hot gas/plasma. Any hot gas will do it, see the sun. There’s no electricity (well, not much relatively), but it glows white. Electricity has no colour, or at least if you wanted to try and claim one it would be be the “colour” radio waves far outside of human vision.
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