Morgan

**Hypothesis:** //** I think that lightning is made with the air and the sun because the sun has power and heat just like lightning does. **//
=== ** My Info ** **:  //Lightning is an electrical discharge within a thunderstorm. As a thunderstorm develops, in the clouds become charged with electricity, but 100 million volts build up in the lower part of the thunderhead, and the temperature of a single bolt of lightning reaches 50,000 degrees F. within a few millionths of a second. That is almost five times greater than the temperature of the sun's surface. // //Lightning kills about 100 Americans each year. That is more deaths than other tragedies like: tornadoes, hurricanes, and ect. About 400 other people each year are struck by lightning and live through it. The Guinness Book of World Records lists Roy Sullivan of Virginia as the human being struck by lightning the most times: seven times!!! wow!! A lightning flash is no more than one inch wide.The temperature of a lightning flash is 15,000 to 60,000 degrees F. That's hotter than the surface of the sun.A stroke of lightning moves about 62,000 miles per second--one-third the speed of light. A single lightning flash carries an electric current as high as 300,000 amperes. For comparison, electrical wiring in a house carries 20 or 30 amperes. What we see as a flash of lightning may actually be three or four different strokes in exactly the same place, one right after another. There are three main types of lightning:, cloud to ground, cloud to cloud, and intercloud. Lightning forms from the build up of electrons(negative charges) in the cloud(or the ground rarely but still possible) and needs to find a quick route to the ground, it then results in a lightning strike! There are two types of lightning; negative strikes and positive strikes. Positive strikes are 5 times more powerful than negative strikes and positive charge flows instead of negative charge. The average lightning bolt could light a 100 watt light bulb for about 3 months.// ** //**Lightning strikes somewhere on the surface of the earth about 100 times every second**. **An electrical discharge is caused by an imbalance between positive and negative charges.**// ===




Description in detail of method or procedures: ** First get your materials and they are: One Styrofoam plate, one new pencil with a new eraser, one metal thumbtack, and one aluminum pie pan. Then take your aluminum pie pan and stick the thumbtack through the bottom of the pie pan. Then you take the pencil with the new eraser and stick the eraser in top of the pointy side of the thumbtack. Then set those materials to the side so just leave it alone for now. Next, take the wool and rub it on the underside of the styrofoam plate for a minute exactly. After that minute, take the wool and put it to the side. After that, take the aluminum pie pan and hold the pencil, NOT the pie pan. Then you take the pan and put it on top of the styrofoam plate, and now for the excitement. Touch the pie pan and you might get shocked, the lights might turn off, or you might see a spark too!!


 * Data Analysis: What makes lightning? Well here is the answer!...... When you rub the wool onto the Styrofoam plate it produces the static electricity and then it holds onto the pie pan. You touch it and BAMMM there you go that is static electricity! **


 * Conclusion:** My hypothesis is wrong.


 * Questions For Further Study: Why is lightning so bright?**

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 * **Sites**

//**A book called: Storms by: Seymour Simon

Herreman, David. "Lightning Facts."**// **Weather Imagery//. David Herreman, 18 Feb. 2007. Web. 21 Jan. 2010. .

Henson, Bob. "Lightning: Just for kids."// USAR communications//. N.p., 4 Apr. 2000. Web. 21 Jan. 2010. < http://www.ucar.edu/communications/infopack/lightning/kids.html>.

Lightning: The Shocking Story--National Geographic Kids."// National Geographic - Inspiring People to Care About the Planet Since 1888//. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Jan. 2010. .

Images links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:LightningOverMiramareDiRiminiItaly.jpg//**