lightning and static essays

lightning and static essays Lightning is a discharge of static electricity in the atmosphere, which causes a bright flash of light. When lighting goes through the air, it heats the air to degrees hotter than the sun's surface about 50,000 degrees fahrenheit. This heating causes the air to expand and contract. This causes the sound called thunder. Lightning is caused by a build up of negative ions in the atmosphere which discharges into the ground causing the negative ions to go with the positive ions in the ground. Static electricity is negatively and positively charged atoms. A static charge on the other hand is a individual atom with a negative or positive charge. There are three types of charges negative positive and neutral. Negative and positive ions attract. But two negatives repel each other, just like two positives will. Neutrally charged ions can attract to both negative and positive ions, because they have and balanced charge of negative and positive ions, this means it has the same amount of negative and positive ions. This is where the following rule is true "opposites attract, and likes repel." Static electricity is generated when two different objects are rubbed together and some electrons are stolen from one object and then start to collect on the surface of the other object. The object that loses electrons becomes positively charged, because electrons are negatively charged and there is an absence of electrons and too many protons. Now because opposites attract and like repel the reason hair stands up when you rub something on it can be explained. When something is rubbed in a dry place, the thing takes electrons from your hair, leaving your hair with a positive charge it stands up as far away as possible from the other positively charged hairs. There reason there is little static electricity in areas with a high humidity, like the Virgin Islands, is because the humidity in the air is a conductor of electricity, so it helps trancfer the free e...