Make Lightning!

Wild weather is fascinating to most kids. Did your child ever wonder what would happen if he was able to create lightening at will?

On stormy days, the moving air in clouds makes ice and water droplets and ice rub together. That rubbing charges them with  static electricity. The result? The positive electrical charges float up near the top of the cloud and the larger ones, with negative charges, stay near the bottom. This separation of electrical charges is very unstable and lightning is the way the charges are equalized or become balanced.

You can create a similar affect at home. While this experiment won't produce something that can strike down trees and cause chaos, it does create an electrical discharge that's like a mini lightening bolt! Set it up on a non humid day, then turn the lights out for a super cool demonstration.

What You Need:

• Disposable aluminum pie plate
• Glue
• Pen
• Thumbtack
• Wool sock
• Big piece of Styrofoam (like the blocks that TVs or other electronics are packed in)

What You Do:

1. Sit the pie plate on the thumbtack and then push the thumbtack through, so it comes up the center on the other side.
2. Position the pen on top of the thumbtack, with the writing side facing up. If the pen won't stay attached simply by spiking it on the tack, glue it so it's secure.
3. Ask your child to rub the wool sock vigorously back and forth across the Styrofoam.
4. Have her grab the pen and use it like a handle to lift the pie plate carefully onto the Styrofoam. Make sure that neither of you touch the pie plate itself, as this will ruin the experiment!
5. Darken the room by closing all curtains and shutting off all lights. (This will make the lightening look much more dramatic.)
6. Now let your child choose a person to be struck by "lightening". Whoever it is should slowly bring a finger closer and closer to the pie plate.
7. Zap! Not only should a small bolt of lightening be visible, but the person who volunteered a finger should feel a small spark and everyone should hear it, too.

While real lightening is obviously much more powerful, this mini lightening works on the same principal. The sock and Styrofoam create static electricity. The spark that jumps from the pie plate is like lighting, though much, much smaller in scale.