You might not know, though, that Franklin used a Leyden jar to collect the charges from the key to show that electricity was the same kind of force as that produced by rubbing amber or spinning sulfur. Franklin and other scientists of his day were fascinated by static electricity and documented its effects, but they were not able to explain the phenomenon. Today, of course, we have a much better understanding of what static electricity is and how it works. Although we cannot harness static electricity for use as an energy source, we can harness its power in our classrooms as we teach students about electricity. Lightning changes some of the oxygen in the air to ozone, which helps screen out ultraviolet rays from the sun.
Ozone also helps purify the air, decreasing dust, smoke, and harmful gases.
The heat from a lightning bolt chemically combines the oxygen and nitrogen in the air with rain. The rain brings the nitrogen to the earth, where plants can absorb it through their roots. Many botanists believe that plant life on the earth could not exist without this natural fertilizer. Although the air we breathe contains nitrogen, we cannot absorb it like we absorb oxygen. We must obtain nitrogen from the plants and animals we eat.