More monopole musings (was "What If")

Bert, you shouldn't have gotten started on the monopole trip.g Must be
that Bud Lite.
Anyhow, thinking back on Wolter's half-jest about
electrical conductors being magnetic monopoles, the same would be true
of a lightning bolt. A current-carrying wire, for its
entire length, is surrounded by a magnetic field of one 'sign' or the
other (either N or S), the sign being determined by direction of current
flow in the wire. The lines of force (flux tubes) enter the wire's
surface vertical to the surface, and do not loop around and re-enter the
wire; rather they are open-ended at their tops. And they all spin in the
same direction going in. So the entire length of the wire becomes a de
facto magnetic monopole.
A lightning bolt, for its brief existance, is also an
electrical conductor, which would make it a magnetic monopole for the
same reason.
Bert, go easy on that Bud.

oc