Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Thunder... Lightning...

Lightning is a huge spark of electricity. Thunder is the sound the air makes as it suddenly heated up by lighting. They both happen at the same time, but as light travels faster than sound; we see the lightning first and then hear the thunder. When lightning heats up the molecules of air along its path thunder appears. The heated molecules expand, collide with cooler molecules and set up sound waves. Light travels very quickly, at about 300,000 kilometers per second. Sound is slower, traveling at about 20 kilometers per minute. In the air, there are millions of particles with positive and negative electrical charges. When the big storm clouds gather, the charged particles become more numerous and concentrated, becoming stronger and stronger, until a spark shoots across the space in between lightning. Lightning can happen with in a cloud, between two different clouds and between a cloud and the ground. A lightning conductor is a metal pole, which is set into the ground, going up the side of a building to the roof. In a storm, the air is full of electricity charges of this electricity are what we call lightning. It attracted to the points of objects, so the tip of the conductor attracts the lightning, taking it down to earth, and the building not struck. The lightning conductor invented by the American Benjamin Franklin.

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