What Causes Thunder and Lightning Video Lecture - Class 8

squeaks where are you
squeaks where are you squeaks
oh there you are squeaks all right okay
squeaks thunderstorms can get kind of
loud and maybe even a little scary
sometimes
but you know what sometimes things that
are frightening are a little less scary
when we understand what causes them and
we can learn what causes things by
asking questions that's why we're so
glad that we heard from our friend four
year old Elinor who asked why do
lightning and thunder happen I'm sure
squeaks would like to know experts
called meteorologists study the science
of weather including lightning and
thunder we can use what they've learned
to explain what causes these bright
flashes of light and the big booms that
follow and you may not know it but the
science of what causes lightning can
happen right in your own home have you
ever walked across a fuzzy carpet and
then when you reach for a doorknob got
in a little shock if so then you've been
part of making a mini lightning bolt
that shock that you felt was caused by
the build-up of what's known as a static
electrical charge a static electrical
charge is just a little bit of
electricity that stays in one place for
a little while static electricity can
build up anytime two things rub together
when you walk across the carpet your
body picks up tiny bits of charge then
when you reach for that doorknob these
charges jump into the metal doorknobs
and zap lightning is caused by the same
thing only on a much bigger scale the
kinds of clouds we see in thunderstorms
have tiny bits of ice in them and these
little bits of ice bump into each other
they cause an electrical charge to build
up inside the cloud and as this charge
keeps building up it gets stronger but
there are two kinds of electrical charge
we call them positive and negative
charges that are different from one
another will attract or pull toward one
another a lot like magnets but in our
case the charge of the cloud is negative
the negative charge in the cloud makes
some spots on the ground get a positive
charge and when the charges in the cloud
and the charges on the ground are just
right a bolt of lightning jumps between
the cloud and the earth and
meteorologists have discovered
there are different kinds of lightning -
some lightning goes from one part of a
cloud to another some jumps from cloud
to cloud and some goes between the sky
and the ground but it's all caused by a
moving electrical charge and all
lightning is hot really hot and that
heat is what causes thunder thunder
starts with the fact that air is made of
tiny particles when these little
particles get heated up they start to
move around more quickly so when the hot
lightning bolt suddenly moves through
the air its heat makes the air particles
around it all excited all those
particles of suddenly hot air start to
move around quickly they push hard
against the cooler air around them that
air then flies away really fast from
where the Lightning was with a lot of
energy our ears hear this movement of
the air particles as a loud bang or
crackle that's thunder
so now you know lightning happens when
an electrical charge builds up inside a
cloud and moves to an opposite charge
and thunder happens when the heat from
lightning causes the particles that make
up air to push away from the lightning
bolt and remember when you're not sure
about something ask questions it just
might make you feel better thanks for
asking Eleanor and if you have a
question for any of us here at the fort
let us know by leaving a comment or
emailing us at kids at the scishow com
until next time
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