What is St. Elmo’s fire? St Elmo’s fire is the ghostly halo of light that is to be seen around the tips of ships’ masts and aircrafts’ wings, during storms. It is caused by lightning, which is a discharge of electricity, either between two clouds or between a cloud and the Earth. In the sixteenth century St Elmo was the patron saint of Mediterranean seamen, who believed that this luminous discharge...

What is lightning? When something has an electric charge, ether positive or negative, the electricity tries o ‘low away to nearby objects. The charge tries to spread itself out evenly. This is why electricity sparks from the comb to your hand as shown opposite. The electric charge jumps across the narrow gap through the air. An American inventor who lived 200 years ago, Benjamin Franklin, thought that lightning was something to...

How can your comb pick up a piece of paper? Have you ever noticed that if your hair is dry and you comb it with a plastic comb it flies out, each hair seeming to float away from the others ! Have you ever seen bits of dust or paper cling to the comb you have just used these strange things are due to electricity. When you comb your hair, this...