How does lightning break a tree branch when it hits it?

4.84K views

How does lightning break a tree branch when it hits it?

In: Physics

2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Wet wood is a poor conductor of electricity. In the cloud to ground circuit, the tree is a resistor. The large resistance dissipates part of the strike’s energy as heat. The water in the wood heats extremely rapidly to far beyond the boiling point, exploding to steam and shattering the wood.

You are viewing 1 out of 2 answers, click here to view all answers.