Funny Weird Amazing Facts!!

MISS SCORPIO said:

rapunzel said:

very nice work Ms

Thank you sweets.

Mwahhhhhhhhhhh!!

u r welcum shweeti

Post some facts that you know of.

Eyes: Are the most complex organs you possess except for your brain.

Eyes: Are composed of more than two million working parts.

Eyes: Can process 36,000 bits of information every hour.

Eyes: Under the right conditions, can discern the light of a candle at a distance of 14 miles.

Eyes: Contribute towards 85% of your total knowledge.

Eyes: Utilize 65% of all the pathways to the brain.

Eyes: Can instantaneously set in motion hundreds of muscles and organs in your body.

Eyes: In a normal life-span, will bring you almost 24 million images of the world around you.

Eyes: The external muscles that move the eyes are the strongest muscles in the human body for the job that they have to do.

They are 100 times more powerful than they need to be.

Eyes: The adult eyeball measures about 1 inch (2.5 cm) in diameter. Of its total surface area only one-sixth is exposed the front portion.

Eyes: The eye is the only part of the human body that can function at 100% ability at any moment, day or night, without rest.

Your eyelids need rest, the external muscles of your eyes need rest, the lubrication of your eyes requires replenishment, but your eyes themselves "never" need rest.

Eyes are your most precious sense ... care for them properly!

Ever notice how many times your eyes blink?
Probably not, because we blink so fast. The average person blinks about 12 times a minute. That's an amazing 10,080 blinks in a kids day (14 waking hours). That's why when someone says "it happened in the blink of an eye," they mean it happened really fast.

How far can an eagle see?
A lot further than the human eye can see. An eagle can see a rabbit about 1 mile or 1760 yards away. Now the average person needs to be about 550 yards away to see the same rabbit. That's why when someone says "you must have eagle eyes," they mean you can see really far.

Does being color blind mean you only see in black and white?
Not exactly. People who are color blind just can't see things in as many colors as people who have normal vision, and they cannot see certain colors like red, green, and some blues. Not all color-blind people see colors the same way, either. That's why when someone says "you must be color blind," they mean you didn't pick out your colors too well.

If bats are blind, how do they "see" where they are going?
It is a common misconception that bats are blind. Almost all bats can see, and their sense of sight and smell is well developed, but these bats don't use their eyes to "see" where they're going. They use sound waves. They make high pitched sounds and then listen for the echoes caused when the sounds bounce off an object. Some bats can fly at a speed of up to 30 miles per hour. Their "radar" must be pretty good to fly that fast at night! Now you know why if someone says "you're as a blind as a bat," they mean you missed something or didn't see it.

If someone is nearsighted they can't see things near, right?
Actually it is the other way around. People who have nearsighted vision can see things that are near very well, but they have trouble seeing things far away clearly. The scientific name for nearsightedness is myopia.

People who have farsighted vision can see things far away clearly but have trouble seeing things close up. The scientific name for farsightedness is called hyperopia. Now that's a mouthful!

Eye facts

Did you know:

that an eye is only 2.3 centimeter long on average?

that the eye lens sits within an envelope that is the thickness of a red blood cell? This envelope is what contains the artificial lens after a cataract operation.

that tears are meant to protect your eye? They contain natural antibiotics, they prevent the eye from drying out, they contain certain fats that reduce the evaporation of tears.

that the eye makes an aqueous fluid in side it, so the eye has a certain "pressure"?

that the retina contains 120 million rods for "night vision", and 8 million cones that are colour sensitive and work best under daylight conditions?

that light causes electric activity in the eye, that can be measured, and is sometimes used in tests to find out how the retina and the nerve of sight works?

that modern cataract operations have been made possible thanks to the second world war? Sir Harold Ridley, who was an ophthalmic surgeon in London, found that pilots came back from their missions with little pieces of perspex in their eye(shattered screens of the planes they were flying in), to which the eye did not seem to "object": no inflammation of any significance was found in their eye.This material was modified and further developed into artificial lenses that are used in cataract operations.

that about half of our brain is involved in the seeing process? Humans are very much visual animals.

Marble Facts
      
Marble is composed mostly of igneous, sedimentary, older metamorphic rock, Dolomite limestone under extreme pressure and heat deep within the earth.

The word Marble is loosely applied to any Limestone or Dolomite that is acceptable for building stone and that will accept a polish.

Marble ranges in color because of impurities in the ground .This results in yellow, reds, black, green, grey, white, orange, and many other beautiful colored base colors and veining.

So marble is basically a Limestone, although many types are not thought of as such. Marble has been used for buildings, statues, columns and other ornate works for thousands of years.

The Romans and Greeks used great amounts of their native stone for construction of their buildings and religious works.

Today marble comes from many counties in the world to our market place, Granite from Brazil to Spain, Marble from Italy to around the world, Onyx from the middle East to Asia.

Many countries have stone they quarry and transform into Marble, Onyx, Granite, and Semi Precious materials that are made into counter tops, marble sinks , vanities, pedestal sinks, farm sinks and many more items.

With the advent of new sealers your stone can stay beautiful year after year, it is as easy as wipe on and wipe off.

SOME FACTS ABOUT GOLD

The chemical symbol for gold is Au, from the Latin aurum, which means 'shining dawn'. Aurora was the Roman goddess of dawn which links to the warm, yellow colour of gold. Gold and Copper are the only two non white coloured metals.

Gold and copper were the first metals to be discovered by man, around 5000BC, and together with silver these three metals are found in the metallic state in the earth's crust. Gold is still mined in its metallic form in over 60 countries around the world.

Gold is referred to as a precious and a noble metal. Gold has an excellent chemical stability with a high resistance to corrosion and oxidation. However, this is just one of the many properties that gold possesses, which when considered in combination with each other have led to a number of exciting and often unique industrial applications.

The purity of gold is measured in Carats. A Carat was originally a unit of mass (weight) based on the Carob seed or bean which was used by ancient merchants in the Middle East. The Carat is still used for the weight of gem stones where 1 carat = 200mg. For gold is is used to measure the purity where pure gold is 24 carats. The following table shows the range from pure gold at 24 Carats to less pure at 9 Carats.

Native Scottish gold is amongst the purest at 22.8 carats.

In Europe 18 and 14 carat alloys are most commonly used in jewellery, however 9 carat is popular in Britain.

In many countries the law requires that every item of gold jewellery is clearly stamped with its caratage. Jewellery in many countries is stamped or hallmarked with its caratage. The hallmarking system was developed in London in the 14th century at Goldsmiths' Hall.

Uses of Gold

Gold has been prized by people since the earliest times for making statues and icons and also for jewelry to adorn their bodies. Intricately sculptured art objects and adornment jewelry have been uncovered in the Sumerian royal Tombs in southern Iraq and the tombs of Egyptian kings. Significant buildings and religious temples and statues have been covered with thinly beaten sheets of gold. Due to its rarity, gold has long been considered a symbol of the wealth and power of its possessor.

In 2001, it was estimated that 2870 tons of gold were produced worldwide. About 80 percent of that gold production was used to make jewelry, the majority of which was sold in India, Europe and the United States of America. Gold jewelry is universally popular, loved for its lustrous yellow color and untarnishing character. In many Asian countries, such as India, Thailand, and China, gold is important to religious ceremonies and social occasions, such as the Chinese New Year and Hindu marriages in India.Importantly, gold is still regarded throughout much of the world as a store of financial value, particularly in many developing countries. However it has many other vital uses in modern life.

Each year approximately 660 tons of gold are used in telecommunications, information technology, medical treatments, and various industrial applications. Due to its high electrical conductivity, gold is a vital component of many electrical devices, including computers. It is used in the manufacture of approximately 50 million computers each year, as well as millions of televisions, DVDs, VCRs, video cameras and mobile phones.

Gold has been used in medicine since 1927, when it was found to be useful in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Even before then it was used in dentistry, in fillings and false teeth. Because it is non-toxic and biologically benign, gold is perfect for many medical applications. Surgeons use gold instruments to clear blocked coronary arteries. In another medical procedure, gold pellets are injected into the body to help obstruct the spread of prostate cancer in men. Gold is also used in lasers, which allow surgeons to seal wounds quickly or treat once-inoperable heart conditions. Thin gold wires are used in many surgical procedures to provide strong and inert support.

Gold as an Investment
In the West pension funds and mutual funds keep typically around 4% of their assets in gold partly as a hedge against inflation, partly as an alternative to major currencies such as the dollar and partly as an insurance against a major financial crisis. To invest in gold they buy shares in gold mines or futures contracts. There is an irony in this: in the event of the kind of meltdown they are insuring against, shares, futures contracts, even bullion deposited in a bank would in all likelihood be worthless. Only physical possession of gold would count.

In Asian countries many people prefer to keep their savings in gold rather than government paper. They buy gold in the form of jewelry or gold bars. In their long histories systemic risk has been more than just an abstract theory; its a historical and contemporary reality.

Thai gold jewelry costs only around 4% over the spot price of gold. This is about the same as gold coins . If you buy gold in the form of jewelry you have the added advantage of being able to use and enjoy it. You can't wear your coins or your share certificates to your friend's party! Hallmarked gold jewelry in the western world so exceeds the value of the bullion it contains that it could never be considered an an investment.

For the westerner, buying Thai gold has significant tax advantages.

Gold Colors

White gold is very popular right now. It can be in 18-karat or 14-karat gold (but not in 22-karat, as it is yellow gold). There are two basic types of white gold alloys: white gold mixed with nickel and white gold mixed with palladium. Nickel can be mixed with gold to create a white or gray color, but some people have an allergy to nickel. Palladium is another metal used to create white gold. Palladium is better but it costs more.

Copper creates pink and rose tones in gold.The more the copper, the deeper will be the effect.

Greenish shades are created by adding silver to gold.

Rose gold and Green gold can be 18-karat or 14-karat but the color is stronger in the 14-karat alloys.

Purple gold. It is referred as amethyst or violet gold. Purple gold is obtained by mixing gold and aluminium in a certain fixed ratio. Gold content is almost 79% and therefore it is qualified to be referred to as 18K gold.

Blue gold is made as an inter-metallic compound between gold and indium . The gold gets a bluish hue color with this process.

Black gold is created using a few techniques. Electro-deposition using black rhodium or ruthenium is the first technique. Controlled oxidation of Carat gold containing cobalt or chromium can also be made to create black gold. Amorphous carbon is also used some times, with the Plasma Assisted Chemical Vapor Deposition process.

Properties of Gold

An unparalleled combination of chemical and physical properties make gold invaluable to a wide range of everyday applications. One of the most important of these properties is gold's virtual indestructibility. Gold is the most non-reactive of all metals. It is called a "noble" metal (an alchemistic term) because it does not oxidize under ordinary conditions, meaning that it will never rust and never tarnish. Gold's physical properties of high electrical conductivity and chemical inertness make it an excellent and reliable conductor, particularly in harsh environments, where temperatures can range from -55°C to 200°C. The use of gold in circuitry ensures reliability of equipment operation, particularly in the vital activation of safety airbag mechanisms in motor vehicles or deployment of satellites and spacecraft.No other metal is as ductile or as malleable as gold. A single ounce of the metal can be drawn into a wire five miles long. Gold can be hammered into sheets so thin that light can pass through. High purity gold reflects infrared (heat) energy almost completely, making it ideal for heat and radiation reflection. Gold-coated visors protected astronauts' eyes from searing sunlight on the Apollo 11 moon landing.

Gold is also an excellent conductor of thermal energy. It is used in many electronic processes to draw heat away from delicate instruments. For example, the main engine nozzle of the space shuttle uses a 35% gold alloy.

Facts about Gold:

Gold, like no other metal, has a fascinating history and a special place in the world. For thousands of years it has been used as an ornament of kings, a currency and standard for global currencies, and more recently, in a wide range of electronic devices and medical applications.

Gold's many unique properties have secured it a central role in history and human development. Gold is a remarkable, rare metal, with an unparalleled combination of chemical and physical properties. It is the only yellow metal and bears its name from the Old English word for yellow, 'geolu'. It is also the only metal that forms no oxide film on it's surface in air at normal temperatures, meaning that it will never rust or tarnish.

Gold's chemical symbol, Au, comes from the latin word for gold, aurum. In the Periodic Table of Elements, gold is classified as a transitional metal with the following characteristics;


Symbol: Au
Atomic number: 79
Atomic mass: 196.96655 amu
Number of protons/electrons: 79
Number of neutrons: 118
Melting point: 1,064.43°C (1,337.58°K, 1,947.97°F)
Boiling point: 2,807.0°C (3,80.15°K, 5,084.6°F)
Density @ 293°K: 19.32 grams per cubic centimeter
Crystal structure: cubic



Gold may be alloyed with various other metals to give it special properties. In its pure form, gold has a metallic luster and is sun yellow, but when mixed or alloyed with other metals, such as silver (Ag), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), nickel (Ni), platinum (Pt), palladium (Pd), tellurium (Te), and iron (Fe), creates various color hues ranging from silver-white to green and orange-red. Usually, red, yellow and green golds are made by adding varying amounts of copper (Cu) and silver (Ag) to produce alloys of 10 to 14 carats. White golds have traditionally been made by alloying nickel (Ni), zinc (Zn) and copper (Cu) with gold, but more recently silver (Ag) and palladium (Pd) have replaced the zinc. These color variation treatments to gold are mostly used in jewellery.

Gold is so rare, only 90,000 tons of it have been taken from the earth in recorded history.

Gold is so rare that the world pours more steel in an hour than it has poured gold since the beginning of time.

South Africa leads the world in gold production. Other countries leading world production are Russia, Canada, and the United States.

Gold is so heavy that one cubic foot of it weighs one half a ton.

A one ounce natural gold nugget is rarer than a 5 carat diamond.

Experts estimate that there are only 41,000 tons of gold left in the earth to mine.

Gold is so malleable and soft that one ounce can be stretched into a wire 50 miles long.

Gold is so malleable that one ounce can be hammered into a sheet so thin it would cover 100 square feet.

Gold has lustrous beauty, it’s easily workable, it is rare, and it is virtually indestructible - four characteristics that no other precious metal possess.

The jewelry industry uses about 1,000 tons of gold per year and dentistry uses 87 tons.

All the gold in the world could be compressed into an 18 yard cube.

Gold has been used by man for more than 66 centuries, In fact, the first nugget mined, now over 6,000 years old, probably exists in some form today because of its durability, considering the way gold is remelted and recast, that first nugget could be part of a ring, watch, or gold chain that you are wearing.

FACTS ABOUT SILVER

Basic Information

Symbol: Ag

Silver possesses, it's working qualities similar to gold but can achieve the most brilliant polish of any metal. To make it durable for jewelry, however, pure silver (999 fineness) is often alloyed with small quantities of copper. In many countries, Sterling Silver (92.5% silver, 7.5% copper) is the standard for Jewelry and has been since the 14th century.

The copper toughens the silver and makes it possible to use silver 925 for decorative and fashionable jewelry.

In the earliest Egyptian records, it was considered more precious than gold. Interestingly, with all of silver's magical power, owning silver at various times was restricted, especially if it was in the form of jewelry. Throughout history, wearing silver jewelry was often a social privilege - not a right - reserved for upper classes.

By the 18th century, things began to change in Europe and a new fashion fad surfaced: silver buckles appeared on shoes where laces had always been. Although today we generally consider shoe buckles to be functional items, back in the 1700's, they were a form of jewelry.

Silver jewelry was a significant indicator of status until the very end of the 18th century, because it was limited to a privileged few. It was the Industrial Revolution, through mass manufacturing, which finally made jewelry available to the general population.

Today's most creative and innovative designers are attracted to sterling due to its low price and the fact, it's so soft and malleable, that silver can be shaped into infinite forms.

At a time when everyone seems to be cutting costs yet, in need of giving their spirits as well their wardrobes a lift, retailers around the world are stocked with a wide selection of the "hottest" silver 925 looks at prices guaranteed not to break the bank. Unlike costume jewelry, sterling silver endures and can be enjoyed for a lifetime, and is more affordable than other precious metals.

To be assured you're buying the real thing, always look for the stamp, "925."

With today's anti-tarnishing processes, as well as easy cleaning techniques, caring for sterling silver jewelry is simpler than ever. Add to this silver's value, durability, fashionability and consistent quality, and it is no wonder that it has retained its popularity over time.

Throughout the ages, silver jewelry has been associated with magical powers; believed to promote healing, bring good luck and for warding off evil spirits to the wearer.

While these beliefs are not part of mainstream thinking today, some people still hold them true.

Silver has always been held in high esteem and displayed as a status symbol since it was mined approx. 4,000 BC in Asia Minor.

Ruby Facts

In the U.S. rubies are mined in North Carolina and near Helena, Montana.
Ruby color varies in different specimens from rose red through so-called ruby red and carmine to a deep purplish red, called "pigeon blood." Clear stones of the deeper shades are the most highly prized.

Many stones that are not rubies are nevertheless called rubies. The balas, or balas ruby, for example, is a type of spinel; the Bohemian ruby is rose quartz; the Siberian ruby is red or pink tourmaline; American ruby, Cape ruby, Montana ruby, and Rocky Mountain ruby are varieties of garnet.The finest rubies are found in central Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) in the neighborhood of Mogok, where rubies have been found since the 15th century in metamorphosed limestones as well as in the overlying weathered zones. Important deposits of rubies are also found in Thailand, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, India, China, and the former Soviet republics.

FACTS ABOUT RUBY - The July Birth Stone

Ruby, the July birth stone, is a precious gem that occurs as a red, transparent variety of the mineral corundum, which is the second hardest mineral after diamond. Sapphire includes all other colored gem variety.

Ruby color varies in different specimens from rose red through so-called ruby red and carmine to a deep purplish red, called "pigeon blood." Clear stones of the deeper shades are the most highly prized.

When cut into a cabochon (a nonconvex) form, some specimens of ruby exhibit asterism; that is, a six-rayed star can be seen in the interior of the stone caused by inclusions, which are needle-like extensions of other mineral crystals (such as rutile) trapped within the primary stone. Such rubies, called star rubies, are also highly prized.

Many stones that are not rubies are nevertheless called rubies. The balas, or balas ruby, for example, is a type of spinel; the Bohemian ruby is rose quartz; the Siberian ruby is red or pink tourmaline; American ruby, Cape ruby, Montana ruby, and Rocky Mountain ruby are varieties of garnet.

The finest rubies are found in central Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) in the neighborhood of Mogok, where rubies have been found since the 15th century in metamorphosed limestones as well as in the overlying weathered zones. Important deposits of rubies are also found in Thailand, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, India, China, and the former Soviet republics.

Precious Corundums are sought after; especially fine rubies are much appreciated and can achieve prices surpassed only by emeralds and diamonds.

In the U.S. rubies are mined in North Carolina and near Helena, Montana.

In addition to their importance as highly prized gems, these July birth stones are used in industry as jeweled bearings in watches and scientific instruments.

Synthetic rubies were first produced in 1837 by fusing alum and chromium-oxide pigment at a high temperature. Improvements in the manufacture of synthetic rubies since then have made possible the production of synthetic stones, which are very much like the natural stone in physical and chemical properties.

Synthetic rubies are used as gems, but about 75 percent of the annual production of synthetic rubies are used in the manufacture of watches and instruments.

The Rosser Reeves stone (left) is one of the finest star rubies. It weighs 138.7 carats.

Other famous rubies are the 167 carat Edwards ruby (British Museum) and 100 carat DeLong star ruby.

The Black Prince Ruby in the Imperial State Crown in London is actually a 170 carat spinel.

Itni info kahan sai collect karti hain...???

very nice...

Lol, isn't it obvious?
The internet silly!

And thanks.

Striking Lightning Facts

Lightning is essentially a gigantic electrical spark that results from billions of volts of natural static electricity.

Lightning is usually associated with thunderstorms and rain. Most meteorologists will agree that ice formation in clouds is a key factor for starting the "electric generator" that produces lightning.

There are several theories as to how lightning is produced. It seems the best one so far [called the "Charge Reversal Concept"] requires that falling graupel (small ice pellets) become negatively charged while small supercooled cloud droplets that strike then bounce off the graupel become positively charged.

Cloud temperature can affect the "charge sign" of the graupel. If the temperature is below -10C then the graupel takes a negative charge and the supercooled cloud droplets take a positive charge.

The supercooled cloud droplets rise on updrafts to the top of the storm while the graupel pellets fall and melt in the lower regions of the storm.

Lightning Safety Facts from NOAA.


Each second there are 50 to 100 Cloud-to-Ground Lightning Strikes to the Earth world-wide.

Most lightning strikes average 2 to 3 miles long and carry a current of 10000 Amps at 100 million Volts.

A "Positive Giant" is a lightning strike that hits the ground up to 20 miles away from the storm.Because it seems to strike from a clear sky it is known as "A Bolt From The Blue". These"Positive Giant" flashes strike between the storm's top "anvil" and the Earth and carry several times the destructive energy of a "regular" lightning strike.

Thunder can only be heard about 12 miles away under good quiet outdoor conditions.

Daytime lightning is difficult or impossible to see under local sun and/or hazy conditions. Night-time "heat lightning" can be seen up to 100 miles away (depending on "seeing" conditions).

"Lightning Crawlers" or "Spider Lightning" can travel over 35 miles as it "crawls" across the bottoms or through squall line "frontal" clouds. This rare type of lightning is very beautiful as itzaps from "horizon-to-horizon". However it can turn deadly if it happens to strike the ground at the end of its super long path!

{Lightning Crawlers from The Blue!}

Radar has detected Lightning "Crawlers" traveling at high altitudes (15000 ft to 20000 ft) as they zap from cloud-to-cloud.

Lightning "Crawlers" over seventy five (75) miles long have been observed by Radar!

The temperature of a typical lightning bolt is hotter than the surface of the Sun!

How big around is a typical lightning bolt? Answer: About the size of a Quarter to Half-Dollar!

Lightning looks so much wider than it really is just because its light is so bright!

Lightning Strikes create powerful radio waves in the frequency range of 3 KHz (audio, VLF) through 10 MHz (shortwave radio). The VLF (3000 Hz to 30000 Hz) "lightning signatures" can travel around the world, allowing monitoring of world-wide lightning. The shortwave "lightning signatures can travel half-way around the Earth (the night-time side of the Earth).

The best region to listen for distant shortwave lightning signatures is from 2 MHz through 7 MHz. After 3 AM local time you can listen to 3 MHz and hear the beautiful dispersion-ringing of the static as it bounces back-and-forth between the earth and ionosphere. It can at times sound like hundreds of tiny bells ringing at once!

Red Sprite lightning is a newly-discovered type of lightning that zaps between the 40 mile span between the tops of severe storm clouds to the lower ionosphere "D" layer. Red Sprite Lightning looks like a giant "blood-red"-colored jellyfish having light-blue tentacles. Red Sprite Lightning creates extremely powerful radio emissions from 1000 Hz through VHF.

Lightening Facts

On a yearly basis, the earth hosts over 16 million storms and 3 billion lightning strikes. The United States experiences approximately 100,000 thunderstorms with 20 million lightning strikes annually.

Lightning can heat up to 60,000 degrees Fahrenheit (about 5 times the temperature of the sun).

Lightning carries 1 billion volts and 10,000 to 20,000 amperes of current.

Lightning can travel 25 to 45 miles horizontally prior to turning downward to the ground.

A flash can be six to eight miles long.

The thickness is that of a quarter to a half dollar, though the surrounding light makes it seem much larger.

The ground surface can be lethal up to a 60-foot radius at the time of the strike. If the strike occurs in water, that increases to 600 feet radius.

Thunder and Lightning

Have you ever seen tall, dark puffy clouds forming on a hot humid afternoon? These are called cumulonimbus clouds, sometimes nicknamed "thunderheads." They can actually form any time of day when the temperature falls rapidly higher up in the sky.

These tall dark clouds are full of moisture and contain strong up and down air currents. Cumulonimbus clouds may tower more than 50,000 feet, and cover from just a few square miles up to two hundred square miles.

What is Lightning?

To put it simply, lightning is electricity. It forms in the strong up-and-down air currents inside tall dark cumulonimbus clouds as water droplets, hail, and ice crystals collide with one another.

Scientists believe that these collisions build up charges of electricity in a cloud. The positive and negative electrical charges in the cloud separate from one another, the negative charges dropping to the lower part of the cloud and the positive charges staying ins the middle and upper parts.

Positive electrical charges also build upon the ground below. When the difference in the charges becomes large enough, a flow of electricity moves from the cloud down to the ground or from one part of the cloud to another, or from one cloud to another cloud. In typical lightning these are down-flowing negative charges, and when the positive charges on the ground leap upward to meet them, the jagged downward path of the negative charges suddenly lights up with a brilliant flash of light.

Because of this, our eyes fool us into thinking that the lightning bolt shoots down from the cloud, when in fact the lightning travels up from the ground. In some cases, positive charges come to the ground from severe thunderstorms or from the anvil at the very top of a thunderstorm cloud. The whole process takes less than a millionth of a second.    

Kinds of Lightning

There are words to describe different kinds of lightning. Here are some of them:

In-Cloud Lightning: The most common type, it travels between positive and negative charge centers within the thunderstorm.

Cloud-to-Ground Lightning: This is lightning that reaches from a thunderstorm cloud to the ground.

Cloud-to-Cloud Lightning: A rare event, it is lightning that travels from one cloud to another.

Sheet Lightning: This is lightning within a cloud that lights up the cloud like a sheet of light.

Ribbon Lightning: This is when a cloud-to-ground flash is blown sideways by the wind, making it appear as two identical bolts side by side.

Bead Lightning: Also called "chain lightning," this is when the lightning bolt appears to be broken into fragments because of varying brightness or because parts of the bolt are covered by clouds.

Ball Lightning: Rarely seen, this is lightning in the form of a grapefruit-sized ball, which lasts only a few seconds.

Bolt from the blue: A lightning bolt from a distant thunderstorm, seeming to come out of the clear blue sky, but really from the top or edge of a thunderstorm a few miles away.


What Puts the Thunder in the Thunderstorm?   

Lightning bolts are extremely hot, with temperatures of 30,000 to 50,000 degrees F. That's hotter than the surface of the sun! When the bolt suddenly heats the air around it to such an extreme, the air instantly expands, sending out a vibration or shock wave we hear as an explosion of sound. This is thunder. If you are near the stroke of lightning you’ll hear thunder as one sharp crack. When lightning is far away, thunder sounds more like a low rumble as the sound waves reflect and echo off hillsides, buildings and trees. Depending on wind direction and temperature, you may hear thunder for up to fifteen or twenty miles.

Lightning and Thunder continued

A Deadly Danger

When it comes to deadly weather, tornadoes and hurricanes get all the publicity, but lightning is actually the worst threat, killing more people on average every year than tornadoes and hurricanes combined.

About one hundred people die from lightning every year in the United States, and hundreds more suffer lifelong injury or disability. In fact, the National Weather Service calculates a one-in-three hundred chance that you or a family member will be struck by lightning sometime during your lifetime.

You can beat the odds fairly easily, though. The simplest way is to get inside a home or other sturdy building during a thunderstorm. Do it immediately; don't wait for the rain to fall.   

Most lightning injuries occur before the rain starts and after it stops.   Remember, if you hear thunder, lightning is close enough to strike you.

The "30-30 Rule"

A good plan to follow is the "30-30 Rule." It works this way: if the time between seeing lightning and hearing thunder is less than thirty seconds, you are in danger of being struck. Go inside.   After the storm is over, wait thirty minutes after the last flash of lightning or boom of thunder before going back outside.

But be careful! Even the "30-30 Rule" cannot protect against the first lightning strike, so always know the weather forecast, and watch the sky for possible developing thunderstorms.   Sports coaches, golfers, scout leaders and campers should have a good lightning safety plan and use it when thunderstorms threaten.

Where to Go?

If you are caught outside during a thunderstorm with no buildings nearby, you should avoid open fields, beaches, lakes and swimming pools as if you life depends on it, because it does. Lightning often strikes the tallest object around, and you don't want that object to be you.

That's also why isolated trees, picnic shelters and covered bus stops offer no protection, and may actually increase your chances of being struck. If no other shelter is nearby, get into a car with metal sides and roof, and roll the windows up.

Nowhere to Hide?

If no building or car is available and you must stay outside during the thunderstorm, find shelter in a dense woods or thick grove of small trees. If you are trapped in an open space, get as low as you can in a valley or ravine and crouch down. Stay away from metal fences, flag poles and lamp posts.

If lightning is about to strike near you, it might give a brief warning. Your hair may stand on end, your skin may tingle, you might hear a crackling sound, and keys or other metal objects may vibrate.

If this happens to your group or sports team, spread out twenty feet or more apart and squat down with your head and feet together, your head tucked and your ears covered. (It's going to be loud!) After the lightning flashes, keep moving to a safer place. With some pre-planning and by following some simple rules, you can avoid the danger of nature's light show and enjoy its beauty instead.

Indoor Lightning Safety

Lightning injuries are rare indoors, but to be safe, remember these indoor lightning rules:

Don't talk on a corded telephone, don't take a bath or shower, and don't use electrical appliances. If lightning strikes outside phone lines, electrical wires or pipes, the electrical current can travel indoors.

Don't watch lightning from an open door or window. It's almost as dangerous as staying outside.

Where does lightning strike people?

The top five states for lightning injuries are Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and New York. Wyoming, New Mexico, Arkansas and Colorado also have a high number of injuries. While you would expect a lot of lightning injuries in thunderstorm-prone Florida, the high number of injuries in the more northern states, where lightning is less frequent, may be partly due to people not taking adequate precautions.

Flash Facts:

* An estimated two thousand thunderstorms are going on in the world at any one time.

* The diameter of a lightning bolt is about a half-inch to an inch wide, but can be up to five inches wide. The average length of a lightning bolt from a cloud to the ground is three to four miles long.

* When lightning strikes a sandy beach, the intense heat turns a small portion of the sand into glass. These icicle-shaped pieces are called "fulgurites."

* A flash of lightning appears to flicker because there are usually several bolts of lightning striking at almost the same time.

* Lightning can occur not only in thunderstorms, but also in snowstorms, sand storms, above erupting volcanoes and from nuclear explosions.

Word Up:
Cumulonimbus: The name for a tall dark thunderstorm cloud comes from a combination of two Latin words, “cumulus,” meaning “heap,” and “nimbus,” which means “rainstorm.”

Anvil: This is what the top of a cumulonimbus cloud is called because it resembles an anvil that blacksmiths and metal workers use to hammer and bend metal.

Terrifying Twisters

Some severe thunderstorms may produce tornadoes. These are violently rotating columns of air in contact with the Earth’s surface. The United States has more tornadoes than anywhere else on earth, with about one thousand occurring every year. The wind inside a tornado can reach speeds of more than 200 mph.

Government meteorologists may issue a tornado watch if they think thunderstorms could be severe enough to produce tornadoes.   

If someone reports a tornado, or if weather radar indicates a thunderstorm is strong enough to produce a tornado, local National Weather Service meteorologists issue a tornado warning.

If you hear a tornado warning, act quickly and get to a closet or hallway on the lowest floor of your home, away from outside walls and windows until the danger passes. It is best for your family to have an emergency plan before storms hit.

Ice from the Sky

Hail forms in strong thunderstorms.

These storms contain very strong updrafts, which are winds blowing up through the thunderstorms clouds. They can be as strong as one hundred miles per hour. Those strong updrafts suspend rain in mid-air with temperatures around the raindrop of below 32 degrees.

Those cold temperatures allow the rain to freeze into small hailstones. As more freezing raindrops get caught in the updraft, they collide with the hailstones, adding layer after layer of ice.

When hail becomes too heavy for the updrafts to keep it aloft, it falls to the ground. In strong updrafts, the hail has time to collect lots of ice, so the hail is bigger.

In weak updrafts, the hail doesn't have to get as big before it is able to fall to the ground. Sometimes the updrafts can be so strong that the hailstones can grow larger than softballs!

Rain So Heavy

Rainfall in a thunderstorm can be very heavy. Cumulonimbus clouds contain huge amounts of moisture. Several inches of rain can fall in a short time. That's why thunderstorms sometimes result in flooding.

Experiments:
1. How Far Away?
The next time you see lightning, count the seconds until you hear thunder. Since light travels faster than sound, the sound of thunder takes longer to get to you; about five seconds to travel one mile. If you count to five just before you hear the thunder, the lightning is about one mile away. If it is very close, the thunder will sound like a loud crack.

If the lightning is far away, it will sound more like a low rumble. If the lightning is more than fifteen miles away, you may not hear it at all.

2. Thunder Boomer
Blow up a small paper bag. Pop it. What happened? You made the air inside expand quickly, the same way air expands when heated by lightning. You made thunder!

Weather Fact: The biggest hailstone ever measured was 7 inches in diameter and 18.75 inches in circumference. It fell in a storm at Aurora, Nebraska, on June 22, 2003.

The previous record-holder as the largest hailstone had a diameter of 5.7 inches and a circumference of 17.5 inches, and was found in Coffeyville, Kansas, on September 3, 1970.

It still holds the record for the heaviest hailstone, weighing more than 1 1/2 pounds!

Weather Fact: A few people have been struck by lightning and lived to tell about it. Park Ranger Roy Sullivan was struck by lightning eight times! Most times he suffered minor burns, but once he lost his big toe, another time his eyebrows, and twice his hair caught fire.

Clouds

You have only to look up into the sky to try your luck at weather forecasting. Clouds give us a clue about what is going on in our atmosphere and how the weather might change in the hours or even days to come. Each type of cloud forms in a different way, and each brings its own kind of weather.

Cool Condensation

Clouds are water.   As you probably know, we can find water in three forms: liquid, solid and gas. Water as a gas is called water vapor. Clouds form when water vapor turns back into liquid water droplets. That is called condensation. It happens in one of two ways: when the air cools enough, or when enough water vapor is added to the air. You’ve seen the first process happen on a summer day as drops of water gather on the outside of a glass of ice tea. That’s because the cold glass cools the air near it, causing the water vapor in the air to condense into liquid. Unlike the drops on the side of your glass though, the droplets of water in a cloud are so small that it takes about one million of them to form a single raindrop. Most clouds form this way, but the cooling comes not from ice in a glass, but as the air rises and cools high in the sky. Each tiny cloud droplet is light enough to float in the air, just as a little cloud floats out from your breath on a cold day.

Too Clean for Clouds?

Our air has to be just a little bit dirty for clouds to form. That’s because water vapor needs a surface on which to condense. Fortunately, even the cleanest air has some microscopic particles of dust, smoke or salt for water droplets to cling to, so the air is rarely too clean for clouds to form.

Cloud Classifications

Meteorologists name clouds by how high in the sky they form and by their appearance. Most clouds have two parts to their name. Usually the first part of the name has to do with the height and the second part refers to the appearance.

If clouds form at the highest levels, they get the prefix “cirro” as the first part of their name. Middle clouds get the prefix “alto.” Low clouds don’t get a prefix.

There are two cloud appearance types: cumulus and stratus, which are also the basic names of the low clouds. Sometimes they appear higher in the atmosphere and get a combination name with a prefix. For example, middle cumulus clouds are called “altocumulus” and high stratus clouds are “cirrostratus.” If a cloud produces rain or snow it gets either “nimbo” at the beginning or “nimbus” at the end.

Cumulus clouds are low individual billowy globs that are low, have flat bases and look a little like cauliflower. They are at least as tall as they are wide and form on sunny days from pockets of rising air. Their constantly changing outlines are fun to watch because they can take the shapes of almost anything, including animals and faces. Cumulus clouds usually signal fair weather. If they build into the middle or high part of the atmosphere they get the name cumulonimbus. A cumulonimbus cloud is tall, deep and dark and can bring lightning, heavy rain and even severe weather such as hail, damaging winds or tornadoes. It is a sign of rapidly rising and sinking air currents.    

Stratus clouds are layered and cover most of the sky.   They are much wider than they are tall.   If you see them in broken or puffy layers, they are stratocumulus clouds. If you see them in thin high layers that turn the sky solid white, they're cirrostratus clouds. The tiny prisms of ice in a cirrostratus layer can bend the sun's light. As a result, often you can see a halo or veil of rainbow colors around the sun. When stratus clouds are very thick, they become dark nimbostratus clouds, which can produce rain, drizzle or snow.

Cirrus clouds are high and thin and made entirely of ice crystals. Forming above 20,000 feet in the atmosphere, they often look like wisps of white hair. Cirrus clouds, which are a sign of warm moist air rising up over cold air, are sometimes an early signal that thickening clouds could bring light rain or snow within one or two days.     

Try to learn the names of the different clouds, and the next time you look up into the sky, take notice of what kind of clouds you see. And if you try, you might be able to guess what kind of weather they will bring.

Cumulus: In Latin, this means "heap." Cumulus clouds look like a heap of cotton balls or whipped cream.

Stratus: It's Latin for "covering" or "blanket." Stratus clouds look like a flat blanket in the sky.

Cirrus: It's Latin for "curl." Cirrus clouds look like curls of white hair.

Rise Up

Clouds form when moisture rises, cools, and changes to water or ice. But what makes the moisture rise into the sky?

It can happen three ways:
1. Sunshine: the heat of the sun can cause the air to rise, taking water vapor with it high into the sky.

2. A Front: a cold front will bring cold air under warm air, forcing it to rise; a warm front will force warm moist air up over the cold air.

3. Mountains: When winds blow against mountains, the moist air is forced upward.

Fog: Inside a Cloud

Have you ever wondered what a cloud looks like from the inside? If you've ever been in thick fog, you know. Fog is a cloud at ground level. It can form on clear nights when there is a lot of moisture in the air.

A cloudless sky allows heat to escape up into space. Then the air near the ground cools enough for the moisture in the air to condense into a cloud.

Sometimes winds blow warm moist air over a cold surface such as water or ice, which causes the moisture to condense into fog.

When cool air moves over a warm lake or pond, moisture from the water's surface may evaporate and condense in the cool air. This results in what is called steam fog.

You guessed it! It looks like steam rising from the lake.

Weather Facts:

Almost every place in the United States has seen snow. Only the Florida Keys has remained flurry-free.

The most snow ever to fall in one winter was at Mount Baker in Washington State. In the winter of 1998-1999, 1, 140 inches fell, almost the height of the Statue of Liberty from head to toe.

Rochester New York is the snowiest large city in the United States, averaging 94 inches of snow every year.

More snow falls each year in southern Canada and the northern U.S. than at the North Pole!

Depending on air temperature, the same amount of moisture in one inch of rain could equal anywhere from two inches of wet slushy snow to as much as 40 inches of dry fluffy snow.