kite experiment
Lightning proves electrical
The kite experiment refers to Benjamin Franklin's 1752 demonstration that lightning is electrical, conducted by flying a kite during a thunderstorm with a metal key attached to the string.
The phrase sometimes extends to any bold, potentially dangerous scientific investigation: His backyard chemistry was a kite experiment waiting to go wrong.
- Benjamin FranklinColonial American polymath statesman
- stormy nightWeather-battered nighttime hours
- keyLock-opening device
- sparkTiny fiery particle
- shockViolent sudden disturbance
thunderstorm · electrostatics · electrical current · wind · Joseph Priestley · natural philosophy · 18th century · rain · grounding · silk · Philadelphia · storm · conductivity · voltage · static electricity · electrical charge · colonial America · colonial era
kite experimentcontrolled experiment
Test isolating one variable
double-blind study · clinical trial · laboratory research · lab work · Large Hadron Collider