You will need:
- Styrofoam plate (use-
and-throw type) - Aluminium pie plate
- Small piece of woollen
fabric (like a sock or
your sweater’s sleeve) - Pencil with a brand new
eraser at the top - Board pin (the type you
put on a school board)
Thunder and lightning never seize to amaze us. Those bright jagged bars to light shooting towards the earth are definitely exciting to watch. What if you could play with these forces of Nature at home?
INSTRUCTIONS
- Take an aluminium pie plate and push a board pin through it from the bottom upwards, so that the pointed side may stick out of the base of the plate.
- Take the rubber end of the pencil and press it down on the exposed pin, so that the pencil may stay perpendicular to the plate.
- Next, take a styrofoam plate and place it on the table upside down.
- Make sure your table is not made
of metal. Any other surface will do. - Tape the plate down on the table
so that it may not keep moving. - Taking your woollen material, rub it for a few minutes on the styrofoam plate.
- Pick up the aluminium pie plate, by the
pencil and place it on the styrofoam plate. - Touch it lightly; you should feel a slight current.
- Switch off the light to see the experiment.
RESULT
When you get your finger close to the aluminium plate,
it will spark and create a mini lightning bolt. This is a
result of static electricity. This takes place as a result of the electrons in your
hand being attracted to the protons in the aluminium plate.
