Photo credit: MoodleHUB.ca
Parents, Electrifying! In high school physics class at the old WSK one of my friends had to miss class on the day that the teacher pulled out the static electricity generator. My friend asked me to take notes for him. The teacher flipped on the shiny orb topped, small tower with a motor and a belt that was vertical between a roller and the belt drive. As the static built up the teacher started to lecture… which meant I missed almost every word because my ADHD brain's attention danced like the streams of electricity jumping and lurching to the small orb he had in his hand. He pulled the orb further away and showed how far the electricity could “jump.” He told us the further away you get the larger the amount of energy (amps x volts = watts) is in the stream of electricity. He had the girl with the longest un-hair-sprayed hair (this was 1980ish, remember Charlie's Angels) come put her hand on it and her hair stood straight up all around. He taught us about how being insulated from the floor with a plastic stool lowered the chance of electricity from flowing through us, because plastic was a less efficient conductor. He did several other experiments to show us some of electricity’s characteristic attributes, like it is drawn to a point. It’s why we have lightning rods standing on top of buildings that direct the electricity from a lightning bolt around the structures instead of through them. We learned that lightning is actually static electricity on a large scale generated by clouds rubbing together and that lightning bolts have anywhere from 100 million to a Billion volts. Lightning can also travel at almost 14,000 miles per hour and reach a temperature of 54,000 degrees. This temperature is enough to turn sand into glass… which explains why Jake Perry would go out into the storm and put in lightning rods into the sand at the beach in the movie Sweet Home Alabama. He was trying to make extremely rare but beautiful glass formations called Fulgurites, which he supposedly sold in his glass store. Our teacher told us that being struck by lightning is usually deadly or at least impairs you for life. As the bell rang and the teacher concluded the lecture, my friend walked through the door. I excitedly told him about all that had happened. As a hand talker, I gestured and pointed toward the static electricity generator that had been turned off for several minutes. However, a stored up bolt of static electricity jumped all the way across the room and zapped me on the pointing finger. I yelled and jumped, it smarted and scared me. The lightning bolt was really beautiful though. My friend's eyes got large and he said, “no way!” The teacher excitedly laughed and calculated the large number of amps x volts = watts it took to jump that many feet across the room. As far as I can tell there was no permanent damage… my friends and family may think otherwise.
