InsaneScouter - Helping todays youth one click at a time

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Item you will need:

Styrofoam plate

Thumbtack tack.gif (1719 bytes)

Pencil with new eraser

Aluminum pie pan piepan.gif (4686 bytes)

Small piece of wool fabric wool.gif (1349 bytes)

Make it happen:

1. Push the thumbtack through the center of the aluminum pie pan from the bottom.

2. Push the eraser end of the pencil into the thumbtack. (The pencil becomes a handle to lift the pan.)

3. Put the styrofoam plate upside-down on a table. Rub the underside of the plate with the wool for one minute.

4. Pick up the pie pan using the pencil "handle" and place it on top of the upside-down plate,

5. Touch the pie pan with your finger. If you don't feel anything when you touched the pan, try rubbing the plate again.

Try turning the lights out before touching the pan. Do you see anything when you touch the pan?

The accumulation of electric charges has to be great enough to overcome the insulating properties of air. When this happens, a stream of negative charges pours down towards a high point where positive charges have clustered due to the pull of the thunderhead.

The connection is made and the protons rush up to meet the electrons. It is at that point that we see lightning and hear thunder. A bolt of lightning heats the air along its path causing it to expand rapidly. Thunder is the sound caused by rapidly expanding air.

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