"Good question," I say, warming to my subject, and the chance to drop some science to my captive audience. She seems receptive, that's cool, she even asked the question. I dig it. "Solid thinking. The whip's kind of a good starting point, because it has a tip, right? The end. The thing about lightning is that it's coming from the whole thing, it's a line stretching up to the clouds." I wave my hand in front of us, up and down, then pointing at the top of a convenient lightning strike.

Field trips are awesome. Or... dates with a dash of field trip are. "Which are further away, yeah? So you get the noise from the part closest to you first, and then the rest rolls in gradually."