Order of Kilopi
If we didnt have lightning on the planet earth would we have been able to figure out how to travel into space?
Basically the question is if we would have been able to figure out electricity if it wasnt for lightning ( and I guess for natural static electricity ).
Without seeing this stuff in nature would we have been able to realize that we could create an electric current. Without that could we have build computers etc ...
Established Member
Lightning is a sudden equalization of previously very different charges. If it didn't happen, I can only see two possibilities:
1. Not so much charge would be building up in the first place, and it could dissipate or equalize more gradually, but the same basic rules of charges and currents would be at work. This could be the case if the climate were such that rain came in calm "showers" instead of in storms.
...or...
2. There's no charge building up or it manages to do so without ever being equalized.
Situation #2 would mean the laws of physics were fundamentally different from what they are, so what we could or couldn't have done becomes entirely unpredictable... for that matter, making the world of electromagnetism work so differently from reality could make our own life processes impossible.
In situation #1, with the laws of physics being the same but the weather just being a lot less dramatic and more gentle, we would eventually have noticed the smaller and more subtle signs of the accumulation and flow of charges.
Order of Kilopi
Online Etymology Dictionary :: Electric
electric [...] from L. electrum "amber," from Gk. elektron "amber" [...] The physical force so called because it first was generated by rubbing amber.
Established Member
It's been a long time, and my memory has faded, but I believe the fact that electric current could be induced by chemical means (a battery) or by moving a magnet near a coil of wire (a generator) was discovered completely independent of lightning or static electricity. Names Volta, Faraday, and Gauss come to mind.
It may be an urban legend, but I'd heard that Franklin's famous kite experiment was intended to prove that lightning was electricity by collecting it in a Leyden jar.
Order of Kilopi
Wikipedia: History of electricity
Thales of Miletus wrote in the 6th century BC that rubbing fur on various substances, such as amber, would cause a particular attraction between the two, which is now known as static electricity.
[...]
The Leyden jar, a type of capacitor for electrical energy in large quantities, was invented at Leiden University by Pieter van Musschenbroek in 1745. William Watson, when experimenting with the Leyden jar, discovered in 1747 that a discharge of static electricity was equivalent to an electric current.
[...]
In 1752, Benjamin Franklin is frequently confused as the key luminary behind electricity. William Watson and Benjamin Frankilin share the discovery of electrical potentials. Benjamin Franklin promoted his investigations of electricity and theories through the famous, though extremely dangerous, experiment of flying a kite through a storm-threatened sky. A key attached to the kite string sparked and charged a Leyden jar, thus establishing the link between lightning and electricity.
[...]
Volta discovered that chemical reactions could be used to create positively charged anodes and negatively charged cathodes. When a conductor was attached between these, the difference in the electrical potential (also known as voltage) drove a current between them through the conductor. The potential difference between two points is measured in units of volts in recognition of Volta's work.
Banned
And don't forget the electric eel, which has given many a careless South American fisherman or swimmer with up to 500 V and 1 A (500 W).
Not to mention that in various museums and aquarium displays, they power light bulbs to demonstrate their capability.
Order of Kilopi
hmmm ... OK ... thought I was going to have a good post for the life in space section ... damn ... where I wanted to go with this is that if a planet didnt have any obvious electricity it would be hard for them regardless of how smart they were to figure out how to send a signal or create vehicle to leave the gravitational pull of their planet.
Banned
It appears this was a learning experience for you!Originally Posted by tommac
Next time, perhaps, you'll tak 60 seconds to enter "Electricity" into Wikipedia, where you'd have rapidly run across the History section at the top, and maybe, just maybe, you'd have clicked on the History of Electricity link.
It's called "research."
When people don't take the time to do at least a little bit of research before posting pet theories (and you have a lot of them) to the board, they appear to others as either ignorant, foolish, lazy, or one of several combinations of two or all three.
When people do take the time to conduct a bit of research and self-education, they appear quite the opposite - knowledgeable, wise, hard-working, resourcesfull, self-motivated, energetic... the list goes on.
Arm yourself with some research, tommac! It doesn't take long. I spent less than five minutes typing this post, surfing Wikipedia, copying the links, inserting them as URLs into the text.
If not difficult. Follow Nike's advice: Just do it.
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