system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
When a lightning bolt strikes the ground, what happens to it once the ground absorbs it?
gpt
Lightning bolts don't "go" anywhere, they're just the visible glow of ionized air. Lightning happens when the electric potential difference between clouds and the ground is too high and the air can no longer sustain it. The air breaks down, forming an ionized channel (the lightning bolt) that allows current to flow until the two regions are at the same potential. Afterwards, there is no potential difference and therefore no discharge. The air that made up the lightning bolt is just normal, non-ionized air again and some electrons have been transferred to the ground.