Weird Fact of the Day!

Studies with high-speed cameras show that most lightning flashes are multiple  events, consisting of as many as 42 main "strokes," each of which is preceded by a "leader" stroke coming from the ground. Each stroke is a powerful stream of electricity which follows the ionized path created by the leader. (Ions are atoms stripped of their electrons - this happens when they get caught in a powerful electrical current.) The average interval between these strokes is 0.02 sec and the average flash lasts 0.25 sec (one quarter of a second).  The duration of each powerful stroke is no more than 0.0002 sec (i.e., 2 ten thousandths of a second!), so the intervals between strokes account for most of the duration of a lightning "flash."  Thus, we see that each stroke of lightning is mostly "empty" time, much the same way that "solid" matter is mostly empty space!!