why does lightning form the “tree roots” pattern where it squiggles and branches out? Rather than, for example, straight up and down?
In: Physics
Electrons flow best on paths with good conductivity, hence people say that lightning follows the path of least resistance. Different materials and chemical compounds have different conductivities, and anything outside a perfect mathematical world has those materials scattered through them pretty randomly. What lightning does is jumping between the best conducting things, towards the electrical ground.
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