WEST MICHIGAN — While thunderstorms can be dangerous, they can also bring incredible light shows from strikes of lightning. Have you ever wondered how lightning forms? In this experiment, you'll be able to see lightning form in front of your eyes!
Meteorologist Haleigh Vaughn visited Mr. Ablao's and Mrs. Salvatore's 6th-grade science classrooms at Mattawan Middle School to show the students how lightning forms. You can watch the science experiment in the video above!
Looking to try this at home? Here's what you'll need:
1. Balloon
2. Florescent light bulb
Here's what to do:
Step 1: Turn off the lights in the room. The darker the room, the better!
Step 2: Blow up the balloon and rub it on your hair for several seconds.
Step 3: Hold the statically charged balloon near the end of the light bulb and watch!
If there's enough charge and the room is dark enough, you'll be able to see the light bulb spark! In fact, you just created lightning. Lightning is all about static electricity!
When you rubbed the balloon against your hair, the balloon builds up an electrical charge called static electricity. Touching that charged balloon to the end of the light bulb made the electrical charge jump from the balloon to the light bulb. This jump is what makes the light bulb spark!
Lightning works similarly in the atmosphere. Lightning is an electrical discharge within a thunderstorm. As a storm develops, the clouds rub together and become charged with electricity.
Lightning happens when negative charges (electrons) that are typically in the bottom of a cloud are attracted to the positive charges (protons). This interaction results in a spark causing lightning. Typically, you see the lightning within the cloud, down to the ground, or to another cloud. On a rare occasion, lightning can also form from the ground up to the cloud.