Talk:Stepped leader

Naming? Step Leader -> Stepped Leader?
Not sure who the original poster was on this. But my sources seem to call this phenomenon a Stepped Leader rather than a Step Leader. Perhaps a name change is in order. For now, I've added it as a "also known as" (parens), with the following reference from the AMS Glossary of Meteorology terms. Hope this helps.

I'd do it myself, but have been feeling a bit Bitten over another recent article, so I don't know that I feel comfortable tinkering with the WP namespace, at this juncture. But, hopefully this is fairly uncontroversial. References:


 * AMS Glossary: Stepped Leader
 * Met Office: Thunderstorms
 * A Theory of the Stepped Leader in Lightning
 * NOAA: What is Lightning?

So, I don't know if the naming of this article needs to change to conform to the more common spelling, or if it's okay as is. Dark Leader, similarly needs to change to Dart Leader, as I assume that was a typo or an outright mistake. Likewise, the Reference naming from the Step Leader page to the Dark Leader page may need to altered as well, if the naming conventions changes here on WP.

Hopefully this is all helpful info for someone? Good thing I've been studying up lately. ;o] Mgmirkin 07:06, 29 August 2006 (UTC)


 * Both changes make sense - they are indeed more accurate terms... Bert 14:01, 29 August 2006 (UTC)


 * I created this article, and the one on "Dark Leader" a long time ago. It was right after I read the first chapter of Feynman's Lectures on physics, and I used his terminology.  That book is about 30 years old, so maybe the terms have changed since then?  Anyway change away... Ed Sanville 16:14, 29 August 2006 (UTC)


 * Interesting. :)
 * Wondering if the etymology has changed? I can certainly see how someone could refer to it as a Dark Leader insofar as it's generally much less powerful than a Return Stroke, thus doesn't give off as much light as said return stroke, thus I suppose it could be called Dark, in some sense. Just been reading a bit on electricity in weather, including lightning. & Dart Leader seems more common. Might be an interesting side note to mention the Feynman lectures if online references/citations or a specific book/lecture can back up that etymology? 64.122.15.114 16:27, 29 August 2006 (UTC) I really wish it would stop logging me out. Bloody cookies. Wasn't hiding, honestly! Mgmirkin 16:28, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Also, pretty sure the Oxford Dictionary of Meteorology I was browsing the other day at Borders listed it as Dart Leader. Though, I didn't buy it, so I don't have it RIGHT in front of me to check, but fairly fresh in my mind... Mgmirkin 17:43, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Mgmirkin 17:59, 29 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Moved per rough consensus on Talk:Stepped_leader. Fairly non-controversial. Standard usage.