Lightning
Lightning is a discharge of static electricity in the atmosphere, which
causes a
bright flash of light. When lighting goes through the air, it heats
the air to
degrees hotter than the sun's surface about 50,000 degrees
fahrenheit. This
heating causes the air to expand and contract. This causes
the sound called
thunder. Lightning is caused by a build up of negative ions
in the atmosphere
which discharges into the ground causing the negative ions
to go with the
positive ions in the ground. Static electricity is negatively
and positively
charged atoms. A static charge on the other hand is a
individual atom with a
negative or positive charge. There are three types of
charges negative positive
and neutral. Negative and positive ions attract.
But two negatives repel each
other, just like two positives will. Neutrally
charged ions can attract to both
negative and positive ions, because they
have and balanced charge of negative
and positive ions, this means it has the
same amount of negative and positive
ions. This is where the following rule
is true "opposites attract, and
likes repel." Static electricity is generated
when two different objects
are rubbed together and some electrons are stolen
from one object and then start
to collect on the surface of the other object.
The object that loses electrons
becomes positively charged, because electrons
are negatively charged and there
is an absence of electrons and too many
protons. Now because opposites attract
and like repel the reason hair stands
up when you rub something on it can be
explained. When something is rubbed in
a dry place, the thing takes electrons
from your hair, leaving your hair with
a positive charge it stands up as far
away as possible from the other
positively charged hairs. There reason there is
little static electricity in
areas with a high humidity, like the Virgin
Islands, is because the
humidity in the air is a conductor of electricity, so it
helps trancfer the
free electrons to an area that can accept electrons, like the
earth so not
many free electrons stay on any object that is saturated. Static
electricity
can be use to do many things, one of these things is keeping down
air
pollution by putting an electrode in factory smoke stacks so that the
dust
will collect on the electrode. Lightning and static can be hazardous.
lightning
is harmful, some people think it does not have any threat from a
distance, like
when a lighting storm is up to ten miles away. The most
lightning strikes take
place under the lightning storm where the rain is
raining the hardest. Signs to
tell if lightning is going to strike in your
area are, If your hair stands up
you hear static popping or crackling, and if
you feel you body tingle due to
ions moving through your body the static on
portable electronic things increases
suddenly, you smell the smell of
statically charged air, or you see static
sparks sparking in the air around
you. Things to do inside to keep from getting
hurt while in a lightning storm
are, get away from doorways outside, porches,
windows, and good conductors of
electricity. Avoid phones that are not cordless
and if it is a cordless phone
avoid it if it is on the cradle. Do not touch
things that use electricity
unless they are unplugged. Do not stand near or lay
on concrete walls. Do not
use a metal building for shelter. And don't go into
the basement because the
electricity can travel through the ground. To not get
hurt outside, go inside
if you hear thunder, if the sky looks threatening, and
stay inside for at
least 30 minutes after the last sound of thunder. If you are
caught outside
and do not have shelter close to you during a lightning storm,
you should
crouch to the ground, get onto the balls of your feet, put your hands
on your
knees, put your head between your knees, make yourself as small as you
can,
and try to have as little physical contact to the ground as you can.
Static
electricity has been known about for some time. Some time around the
year 600BC
the Greek Mathematician named Thales was might have been the first
to record
that amber rubbed with fur would attract small light objects. In
1733 C.F. de
Cistenay Dufay named the two charges of static, resinous
electricity due to too
many electrons, and electron deficiency electricity.
Now static electricity is
discovered to be a source of many problems in
industry. . Static can cause
problems in Industry, like in the production of
plastic materials, and the
transportation or use of flammable liquids. With
the production of plastic
materials the plastic can cause the production
machines to clog, and thin strips
of plastic to stick together and clog
machines. With transporting or using
flammable liquids a static spark can
igniht a whole container of the liquid.
Some techniques were developed to
help prevent static problems with the
production of static , the two major
techniques are chemicals, or the use of
carbon and or metal fillers. With the
chemical way of controlling static the
chemicals are mixed with the molding
palettes or powder. The second way is to
apply the chemicals directly to the
surface of the plastic that has the molding.
These two chemical methods
work, because they help distribute the static into
the air, by increasing the
conductivity of the plastic. With the metal/carbon
filler method you mix in
the metal or carbon pellets in with the molding
pellets/dust. This way works
because it helps bring up the conductivity of the
plastic molded with the
fillers. Although these techniques for getting of the
static may sound good,
there are drawbacks, like with all good things. The
chemical method corrodes
the machinery and lets bacteria and/or fungus to grow
in the product or
production equipment it also easily wear out. The metal/carbon
filler has its
own set of problems, They either work themselves out of the
product, because
the fillers don't mix well with the plastic, and cause the work
areas to get
dirty (can be a major problem in some areas). The fillers also make
plastic
opaque, so that will make it difficult to track while being
produced.
This is bad because the product would need to be tracked to see
how efficient
the work is going. There are three major techniques for
preventing static
electricity in the transportation storage transference and
use of flammable
liquids. The first way is by bonding two containers when
transferring the liquid
between them. What you do in bonding is you take
something that can conduct
electricity and you connect it between the two
containers. What bonding is to do
is make the static charges in the
containers about equal, so that there will not
be much static potential
energy, and no sparks will form while transferring
liquid, most of the
transferring pumps that are made have special grounding
things in their
transfer hoses. Another way to prevent static electricity build
up in the
storage of conductive containers of the liquid is to ground them. You
can
ground things by connecting the containers on metal, or conductive
material
that is some how driven into the ground, but you must make sure that
the
container is in direct contact with the material or metal. The third way
for
controlling static electricity is by using non-conductive material so
that it
will be rather hard for any static to build up in the containers.
There are some
problems with these techniques though. The first two methods
are not reliable
because a good connection between to metal surfaces is hard
to maintain, and the
third method has some problems too, certain types of
containers might not be
able to take heat or shock. There are some inventions
made to make static
electricity, like the Van de Graaf generator, AKA tin can
generator, made by Dr.
Robert Van de Graaf. This generator can generate
some 100,000 to 10 million
volts of electricity. Although this generator was
made in 1935, it was not the
first one. There were other static electricity
generators like Von Busch's
generator, which was made in 1893, and is a
generator made with two pulleys and
a belt running between them, which rubs
on a charge collector comb inside and a
sphere that has been insulated.
Another static electricity generator is
Rouland's generator. Rouland's
generator was made in 1785, this generator has a
ribbon running between two
pulleys with a charge collector tube in the middle.
These three
generators can be used to see how much static can effect some
certain types
of materials. The three generators might not work in humid places
because the
water in the air might help conduct the static charges to a place
where they
can easily be taken in by positively charged ions. Lightning can be
dangerous
and may hurt you badly and even kill you if it gets to you, But
all
Lightning is, is a enormous charge of static electricity. Static
electricity can
charge in many different places, as long as there is poor
grounding, poor
conducting and plenty of negative and positive charge ions to
go transfer to and
from. There will be static charges where ever more than
one atom with at least
two or more electrons and protons are, as long as they
orbit each other and
occasionally steal electrons from each other and then
give them back, as long as
this happens there will be static charges. Index
(in order of appearance)
Definition of Lightning, 1 What Makes Lightning,
1 What Makes Static, 1
Definition of Static electricity, 1 Uses for
Static, 2 Lightning Safety, 2
Static History, 3 Static Hazards, 3 Static
Prevention in Plastic Production, 3
Static Prevention in Fuel, 4 Static
Generators, 5 Static Ideas, 5 Static
and
Lightning
Bibliography
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website: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/er/mhx/lightng.htm
website:
http://www.nhoem.state.nh.us/mitigation/section_iii.htm
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resources)
website: http://www.nhoem.state.nh.us/mitigation/fig%203-16.htm
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