Lightning is one of the most powerful natural occurrences on the face of the planet, if not the most powerful. Hotter than the surface of the sun, hundreds of millions of volts of electricity discharged in a fraction of a second. It is deadly, and unpredictable in nature but you can create a safe simulation in your own home.
We have all been shocked when touching a doorknob, that is the same principle on a significantly smaller scale. Even cooler still? You can create static charges in your mouth. Here is what you need:
-LifeSavers Wint-O-Green flavored mints.
-A dark room.
-A mirror.
Try to dry out your mouth a bit and go into your dark room, the darker the better. Put the mint in your mouth and chew it immediately. If you look closely, and get a little lucky, you will see small zaps in your mouth. This is static electricity building up and discharging from the friction of the mint and your teeth.
It is that simple. Lightning is the discharge of built up charges between the cloud and the ground, obviously on a giant scale.
In the video, you can see small electric shocks in my mouth, if you look closely. I slowed down the parts of the video that show the small flashes. This doesn’t work every time, but when it does, it is very cool.
See you next time on weather labs.
