MAKE YOUR OWN LIGHTNING

Materials:

1 - Styrofoam Plate
1 - Thumbtack
1 - New Pencil with Eraser
1 - Aluminum Pie Pan
1 - Small Piece of Wool Fabric

Procedure:

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 making the pencil a 
    handle to lift the pan.

3) Put the styrofoam plate upside-down on a table. Quickly rub the underside of the
    plate 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 plan,
    try rubbing the plate again.

6) Next, turn out the lights and repeat. Do you see anything?

What's Going On?

   It's all about static electricity. Lightning happens when the negative charges in the bottom clouds are attracted to the positive charges in the ground. In this experiment, the negative charges are in your finger while the positive charges are in the pie pan. The resulting spark you see is just like a mini-lightning bolt.
   

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