Lightning, or a massive discharge of electricity around storms, is as scary as it is amazing. When heat, air, and water vapor mix in a cloud, it can attract many positively and negativlye charged particles together, that, when the build-up becomes too great, must be expelled in the form of an explosion. This explosion causes a huge noise to be emitted as well; this noise is something that we call "thunder." Along with the emission of noise, the bombarding particles also cause sparks to form, and those sparks create enormous outbursts of electricity that gets attracted from cloud to cloud, and also from clouds to the ground in streams. These electrical streams, or strokes, are incredibly energy-filled and bright, hence the term, "lightning."
We can calculate the distance a storm is from us by counting the number of seconds it takes to hear thunder after we see lightning. Lightning and thunder occur at the same time, but light travels faster than sound, so we see the lightning first, we know thunder will soon follow. It generally takes sound to travel at 3 seconds per kilometer, so if we can count to 5 before we hear thunder, we know the storm is 15 kilometers away.
Lightning is cool, yes, but can it be used as an energy source? There are people who think so. In fact, some university laboratories are experimenting with harnessing lightning to be used an as alternative form of energy. Will it work? Maybe. If you find out how to do it, maybe you will be the next Thomas Edison!
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