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Module 3

1. Module 3

1.9. Page 7

Module 3 Lesson 1

Module 3—Electrical Phenomena

 

summary Lesson Summary

 

At the start of this lesson you were asked two essential questions:

  • Can the concepts that explain large-scale phenomena like lightning be explored using small-scale equipment like a Van de Graaff generator?

  • How can these concepts explain what happens to charges within a cloud during a lightning strike?

You have seen that charged balloons, soap bubbles, and machines like a Van de Graaff generator can effectively model many of the key concepts that are essential to understanding electrostatics. These concepts include the attraction and repulsion of charges, the law of conservation of charge, and the three methods of transferring charge—by friction, by conduction, and by induction. All of these ideas come into play to describe how lightning gets its charge.
 

In the next lesson you will have an opportunity to develop a more precise description of the interactions between charges as you explore the equation that describes the electric force between two charges.

 

Lesson Glossary

 

grounding: the process of transferring charge to and from Earth