I like to explain lighting to ur son While lighting takes place a positive charge builds up near the top of the cloud The negative charge is concentrated near its base. The negative charge attracted by positively charged ground beneath cloud Air is a good insulator and for a time it prevents the flow of electricity that would equalise the charges when enough voltage builds up two- part stroke of lighting occurs. First aseries of faint “leader”strokes zigzag down from the cloud .Electrically charged “streamers” flare up from the ground and when two meet a electrical path-way is forged between earth and sky( like when two wires of electricity meet spark appears ) A powerful current of electricity then travels up this path-way into the cloud This second ” return stroke” produce the flash we see as lighting
What Causes Lightning
Lightning is an electric current that passes between two clouds, within a single cloud itself, and between the cloud and earth. Lightning strikes are common during thunderstorms. They can travel largeHow Does Lightning Form
There is a lot of motion within a cloud made up of water vapor. The upper layers of the cloud are in contact with the cold atmosphere. This causes the water vapor to condense into small ice particles. However, the lower layers adjacent to the warmer parts of the atmosphere continue to have water vapor. The ice and water vapor collide with each other in the cloud, creating static electrical charges due to the friction. The lighter positive charges collect at the top of the cloud while the heavier negative charges move to the bottom. When the charges are high, the opposite poles of the cloud act like a battery, and a bolt of lightning occurs between the two ends due to the attraction between the opposite charges.
What Creates the Bright Light in the Clouds during Lightning
The atmosphere usually acts as an insulator and doesn’t allow the lightning to flow anywhere else except within the cloud. This limits the electric charges, along with the light produced by them, within the boundaries of the cloud, illuminating the entire cloud.
How Does Lightning Work to Strike the Earth
When the charges developed in the cloud are strong enough, they may break the insulating property of the atmosphere and make electric current flow down to the earth that has a positive charge, which travels back to the sky as a brighter spark. Usually, the positive charge on the ground develops on tall structures such as buildings, trees, electricity poles, etc. The downward and upward flows of electric current are cumulatively seen as lightning.
distances and follow a zig-zag path.A high temperature (53,540 degrees Fahrenheit, about six times the temperature of the sun) is produced by a single bolt of lightning. The air through which the spark passes becomes excessively heated and expands rapidly producing a loud sound that we hear as thunder.
Lightning may cause death or severe injury if it strikes a person. Hence, it is important to take adequate safety precautions during lightning. Stay away from electrical appliances, open doors and windows, water bodies, open fields and remain indoors.Seeing lightning
Lightning is visible as a flash of blue-white light. The extremely high temperatures generated heat the air molecules to a state of incandescence (white hot) such that they emit a vivid white light. At the same time, nitrogen gas (the dominant gas in the atmosphere) is stimulated to luminesce, producing bright blue-white. The combination of light from luminescence and incandescence gives the bolt of lightning its characteristic colour.
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