Why don't electrons jump between the turns of a coil?

[Salvador]

I think what sophie said is that lightning itself is DC , we have known that for quite some time now but the very burst itself the arc through the air creates some extra components with it that may resonate after the initial strike has run short of its potential, and those extra components are more like high frequency AC.

not a brilliant but still an analogy would be that take any other DC source , a battery or more closely a capacitor charged to high potential and it matters through what medium you discharge the cap.the discharge itself could create AC for brief amount of time.
it matters if you discharge the cap with a short thick screwdriver or with a few turns of conducting path wrapped in a coil fashion , it could even be coreless still a very high potential would be shorted through it , and some resonant EM field would exist for some time around the coil.yet the source was and still is DC.

 

[sophiecentaur]

See what a waste of time classification can be?
DC from a battery and the conditions that we use in 'DC calculations' are all predicated on the steady state - or the 'near enough' steady state to allow good predictions. A lightning strike does not satisfy those conditions. It is brief, non linear and generates significant RF to tell me that there is 'AC' there. AC is not just 50 or 60 Hz; if there is an alternating component at 200kHz then I would call that AC. Would you call it DC? What would Mr Fourier have to say about it? I don't need to give references to him, do I?

 

[NascentOxygen]

A lightning bolt doesn't neatly align with the concept of either DC or AC. Nor need it.

The question of why electrons follow the tedious circuitous path in a coil has been adequately answered. Thanks to all contributors.

Thread closed.

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