Cooperative Living June 2023 - 28

KIDS KORNER
Summer Sky
T
Keeping an Eye on the
Story and artwork by Anne M. Dellinger, Contributing Columnist
To better understand his findings and the science
here is so much to love about summer. With
warm breezes and extended daylight, there are
tons of activities to keep you outdoors playing
in the water and dirt for hours.
irt
starstarting to shift.
Wh
That is, until you notice the weather around you
When gentle winds begin to turn gusty and fluffy
clouds darken and send out muffled rumbles, you quickly
realizeea ize that your summer fun is about to stop because ...
a storm is coming!
An approaching thunderstorm demands immediate
pool or ocean. Ballplayers need to leave the field.
A p
An
attention and action. Swimmers must come out of the
Hikers should seek a refuge away from trees. Picnickers
have to gather their food and head for shelter.
Getting caught outside during a thunderstorm is
not only scary, it's extremely dangerous. Lightning is
a huge electrical spark that could be up to 5 miles long.
The flash can happen in half a second, superheating
the surrounding air to a temperature five times hotter
than the sun's surface! It causes the nearby air to instantly
expand and vibrate, creating the sound of thunder,
which seems to occur later, only because sound travels
slower than light.
The blinding flashes and earth-shaking sounds of
a storm have captured man's imagination
for thousands ofyears. The Greeks and
ig tn
by
ave captured man's imagination
usands
thunder were caused by activities of
the weather gods, such as Zeus and
Jupiter. A sky god was often depicted
holding lightning bolts as weapons.
It is no surprise that the magicalfire
shooting out ofthe sky became a part
Romans believed that lightning and
man
e weathe
J iter.
ng
th
er cause
as
eus
sky god was often depicted
h ng ightning bolts as weapons.
I no surprise that the magicalfire
out ofthe sky became a part
ths, legends and early religions.
ofsuperstitions, myths, legends and early religions.
Much later in history, the mystical nature of storms
lessened when lightning was found to be a flow of
electricity high above the earth. Benjamin Franklin
is credited with unlocking this secret of nature
when he flew his famous kite during a storm
and discovered that lightning is the
result of an electrical discharge.
26 ● Cooperative Living ●
June 2023
Even though much is known about lightning, there are
still some myths that need to be debunked. Here are a few
from a long list of " lightning untruths " that the National
Weather Service wants to set straight.
MYTH:
Lightning never strikes
twice in the same place.
MYTH:
If caught outside in
a storm, seek shelter
under a tree.
FACT: Lightning often strikes
the same place repeatedly.
The Empire State Building is
hit an average of 23 times a year.
FACT: Being under a tree
is the second leading cause
of lightning casualties. Better
to get wet than frizzled!
co-opliving.com
in the water
of lightning, follow these diagrams to see what happens
when opposites attract!
⊳ FIRST
Bits of ice bump together inside a cloud
producing positive charges (protons)
shown in red and negative charges
(electrons) shown in yellow. As negative
charges gather at the bottom of the cloud,
positive charges collect on buildings,
trees and even people.
SECOND ⊲
An invisible, negatively charged
channel called a stepped leader
zips down from the cloud.
⊳ THIRD
As the negatively charged stepped leader
comes within 150 feet of the ground,
an upward developing positive charge,
called a streamer, rises up to meet it.
FOURTH ⊲
When the rising positive charge connects
with the negative charge coming down,
watch out! As the opposites attract, an
electric current is produced and KAPOW
... lightning strikes!
KIDS! CLIP AND KEEP YOUR KIDS KORNER COLUMNS IN A THREE-RING BINDER AND YOU'LL HAVE A NOTEBOOK CHOCK FULL OF FUN IDEAS AND ACTIVITIES FOR THE FUTURE!

http://www.co-opliving.com

Cooperative Living June 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Cooperative Living June 2023