Electric field and lightning

1.What is polarization?
According to Encyclopedia Britannica Polarization is the property of certain
electromagnetic radiations in which the direction and magnitude of the
vibrating electric field are related in a specified way; but to be specific
electric polarization, slight relative shift of positive and negative electric
charge in opposite directions within an insulator, or dielectric, induced by an
external electric field. Polarization occurs when an electric field distorts the
negative cloud of electrons around positive atomic nuclei in a direction
opposite the field. This slight separation of charge makes one side of the
atom somewhat positive and the opposite side somewhat negative. In some
materials whose molecules are permanently polarized by chemical forces,
such as water molecules, some of the polarization is caused by molecules
rotating into the same alignment under the influence of the electric field.
Some people believe that polarization means charging which is not the case
at all. When an object becomes polarized, there is simply a redistribution of
the centers of positive and negative charges within the object. Either by the
movement of electrons across the surface of the object (as is the case in
conductors) or through the distortion of electron clouds (as is the case in
insulators), the centers of positive and negative charges become separated
from each other.

2.Describe the polarization of a storm cloud

What happens is that when storm clouds form, they are made up of lots of
dust and vapor particles. Through some mechanism, this cloud becomes
electrically polarized or charged (this is the part scientists are unsure of how
it happens. Theres lots of debate as to what method causes it to happen, but
the results that follow are pretty well understood).
Due to the fact that a lot of electric polarization/charge can be accumulated
on a large cloud, the air below starts to ionize (become charged/polarized,
just like the cloud) and does so very quickly. Since ionization in one region of
air can cause another region of air to become ionized, this can happen
between clouds, or between the clouds and the ground.
These channels of ionized air are much more conductive than regular air, so
electrons move much more easily thru these channels than regular air. These
ionized air channels look much like the "electric sparks" you see due to static
electricity by rubbing your feet on the ground and then touching something.
Really what you are seeing is air getting ionized, and it giving off light in the

process. These sections of ionized air are much bigger (about 160 feet long)
but you pretty much can't see these unless you're very close.

3.What is a streamer?
As the step leaders approach the earth, objects on the surface begin
responding to the strong electric field. The objects reach out to the cloud by
"growing" positive streamers. These streamers also have a purplish color and
appear to be more prominent on sharp edges. The human body can and does
produce these positive streamers when subjected to a strong electric field
such as that of a storm cloud. In actuality, anything on the surface of the
earth has the potential to send a streamer. Once produced, the streamers do
not continue to grow toward the clouds; bridging the gap is the job of the
step leaders as they stage their way down. The streamers wait patiently,
stretching upward as the step leaders approach. The stream is the positive
charge on the earth when the step leader comes from the lightning who is
negatively charge. Streamers examples are trees, high building and towers.
The streamer might meet the leader at an altitude equivalent to the length
of a football field. Once contact is made between the streamer and the
leader, a complete conducting pathway is mapped out and the lightning
begins. The contact point between ground charge and cloud charge rapidly
ascends upward at speeds as high as 50 000 miles per second. As many as a
billion trillion electrons can transverse this path in less than a millisecond.

4.What is a step leader?

Once the ionization process begins and plasma forms, a path is not created
instantaneously. In fact, there are usually many separate paths of ionized air
stemming from the cloud. These paths are typically referred to as step
leaders.The step leaders propagate toward the earth in stages, which do not
have to result in a straight line to the earth. The air may not ionize equally in
all directions. Dust or impurities (any object) in the air may cause the air to
break down more easily in one direction, giving a better chance that the step
leader will reach the earth faster in that direction. Also, the shape of the
electric field can greatly affect the ionization path. This shape depends on
the location of the charged particles, which in this case are located at the
bottom of the cloud and the earth's surface. If the cloud is parallel to the
earth's surface, and the area is small enough that the curvature of the earth
is negligible, the two charge locations will behave as two charged parallel
plates. The lines of force (electric flux) generated by the charge separation
will be perpendicular to the cloud and earth. Excess electrons on the bottom
of the cloud begin a journey through the conducting air to the ground at
speeds up to 60 miles per second. These electrons follow zigzag paths

towards the ground, branching at various locations. The variables that affect
the details of the actual pathway are not well known. It is believed that the
presence of impurities or dust particles in various parts of the air might
create regions between clouds and earth that are more conductive than
other regions. As the step leader grows, it might be illuminated by the
purplish glow that is characteristic of ionized air molecules. Nonetheless, the
step leader is not the actual lightning strike; it merely provides the roadway
between cloud and Earth along which the lightning bolt will eventually travel.

Applications of induction
1.How does an AC generator utilizes Faradays law?
The ac generator uses Faraday's laws of induction, it consists of a coil of wire
rotating a magnetic field. As the coil rotates it cuts the magnetic flux
generating an EMF, the EMF produced is given by Faraday's law. The angle is
changing at the angular frequency . Therefore at a given moment in time
the angle between the normal to the area and the magnetic field lines will be
t. Therefore the flux linkage, N will be BAN cos(t). Differentiating cos(t)
function with respect to time gives - sin(t). The electrons flow first in one
direction and then, in the other. The generator produces an alternating
current. One advantage that AC has over DC is that it can easily be "stepped
up" or "stepped down" with a transformer. In other words, a transformer can
take a low-voltage current and make it a high-voltage current, and vice
versa. Power is the product of voltage current For a given amount of
power, a low voltage requires a higher current and a higher voltage requires
a lower current. Since metal conducting wires have a certain resistance,
some power will be wasted as heat in the wires. Thus, if the overall
transmitted power is the same, and given the constraints of practical
conductor sizes, low-voltage, high-current transmissions will suffer a much
greater power loss than high-voltage, low-current ones. This holds whether
DC or AC is used. However, it was very difficult to transform DC power to a
high-voltage, low-current form efficiently, whereas with AC this can be done
with a simple and efficient transformer.

2.What is the mutual inductance?

When a steady current flows in one coil as in the left illustration, a magnetic
field is produced in the other coil. But since that magnetic field is not
changing, Faraday's law tells us that there will be no induced voltage in the
secondary coil. But if the switch is opened to stop the current as in the
middle illustration, there will be a change in magnetic field in the right hand

coil and a voltage will be induced. A coil is a reactionary device, not liking
any change! The induced voltage will cause a current to flow in the
secondary coil which tries to maintain the magnetic field which was there.
The fact that the induced field always opposes the change is an example
of Lenz' law. Once the current is interrupted and the switch is closed to cause
the current to flow again as in the right hand example, an induced current in
the opposite direction will oppose that buildup of magnetic field. This
persistent generation of voltages which oppose the change in magnetic field
is the operating principle of a transformer. The fact that a change in the
current of one coil affects the current and voltage in the second coil is
quantified in the property called mutual inductance.

3.How does a standard transformer work?

A transformer is an electrical device that transfers energy between two or
more circuits through electromagnetic induction. A varying current in the
transformer's primary winding creates a varying magnetic flux in the core
and a varying magnetic field impinging on the secondary winding. This
varying magnetic field at the secondary induces a varying electromotive
force (emf) or voltage in the secondary winding. Making use of Faraday's
Law in conjunction with high magnetic permeability core properties,
transformers can thus be designed to efficiently change AC voltages from
one voltage level to another within power networks. It can be designed to
"step up" or "step down" voltages and works on the magnetic induction
principle. A transformer has no moving parts and is a completely static solid
state device, which insures, under normal operating conditions, a long and
trouble-free life. It consists, in its simplest form, of two or more coils of
insulated wire wound on a laminated steel core. When voltage is introduced
to one coil, called the primary, it magnetizes the iron core. A voltage is then
induced in the other coil, called the secondary or output coil. The change of
voltage (or voltage ratio) between the primary and secondary depends on
the turns ratio of the two coils.

Quantum Physics
1.Describe the idea of Schrodingers cat.
Is sometimes described as a paradox. The scenario presents a cat that may
be both alive and dead, this state being tied to an earlier random event. We
place a living cat into a steel chamber, along with a device containing a vial
of hydrocyanic acid. There is, in the chamber, a very small amount of
hydrocyanic acid, a radioactive substance. If even a single atom of the

substance decays during the test period, a relay mechanism will trip a
hammer, which will, in turn, break the vial and kill the cat. The observer
cannot know whether or not an atom of the substance has decayed, and
consequently, cannot know whether the vial has been broken, the
hydrocyanic acid released, and the cat killed. Since we cannot know,
according to quantum law, the cat is both dead and alive, in what is called a
superposition of states. It is only when we break open the box and learn the
condition of the cat that the superposition is lost, and the cat becomes one
or the other (dead or alive). This situation is sometimes called quantum
indeterminacy or the observer's paradox: the observation or measurement
itself affects an outcome, so that the outcome as such does not exist unless
the measurement is made.

2.Describe Thomsons experiment with cathode ray tubes

Cathode rays are so named because they are emitted by the negative
electrode, or cathode, in a vacuum tube. To release electrons into the tube,
they first must be detached from the atoms of the cathode. In the early cold
cathode vacuum tubes, called Crookes tubes, this was done by using a high
electrical potential between the anode and the cathode to ionize the residual
gas in the tube; the ions were accelerated by the electric field and released
electrons when they collided with the cathode. Modern vacuum tubes
usethermionic emission, in which the cathode is made of a thin
wire filament which is heated by a separate electric current passing through
it. The increased random heat motion of the filament atoms knocks electrons
out of the atoms at the surface of the filament, into the evacuated space of
the tube.Since the electrons have a negative charge, they are repelled by the
cathode and attracted to the anode. They travel in straight lines through the
empty tube. The voltage applied between the electrodes accelerates these
low mass particles to high velocities. Cathode rays are invisible, but their
presence was first detected in early vacuum tubes when they struck the
glass wall of the tube, exciting the atoms of the glass and causing them to
emit light, a glow called fluorescence. Researchers noticed that objects
placed in the tube in front of the cathode could cast a shadow on the glowing
wall, and realized that something must be travelling in straight lines from the
cathode. After the electrons reach the anode, they travel through the anode
wire to the power supply and back to the cathode, so cathode rays carry
electric current through the tube.The current in a beam of cathode rays
through a tube can be controlled by passing it through a metal screen of
wires (a grid) to which a small voltage is applied. The electric field of the

wires deflects some of the electrons, preventing them from reaching the
anode