Have you ever wondered how lightning forms? We'll I have lots of times! So I had to find out just how it worked, and here's what I found But to help you understand I have to ask a couple questions!!
Have you ever gotten a shock by shuffling across a carpet and then touching something made of metal? If you have,then you've experienced the same process that makes lightning!
Within a thundercloud, tons of small bits of ice bump into each other, as they swirl around in the air. All those collisions create an electrical charge, just like the one that built up in you when you crossed the carpet.
After a while, the whole cloud fills up with electrical charges (usually with a negative charge closest to the earth). Since opposites attract each other, that causes a positive charge to build up on the ground beneath the cloud. The ground's electrical charge concentrates around anything that sticks up, such as mountains, lone trees, people, or even blades of grass. The charge streaming up from these points eventually connects with a charge reaching down from the clouds, and--bam!--lightning strikes.
The intense heat of the lightning bolt causes the surrounding air to explode outward with a gigantic boom sound or thunder.
This is the link to where I found this information- http://www.ucar.edu/communications/infopack/lightning/kids.html
HI! lilli you are a noddle nobblet.
Posted by: cala | December 14, 2007 at 03:04 PM