Research Rack: Did You Know?

• At Niagra Falls, 2,400,000 kilowatts of electricity can be produced, enough to power 24 million 100-watt lightbulbs.

• During the tourist season, 250,000 gallons of water pour over Niagra Falls in one second.

• The electric eel can give off 600 volts of electricity.

• Animals such as the star-nosed mole, electric cat fish, and electric elephant fish are capable of detecting electric fields in other animals.

• If lightning strikes you, 10 to 30 million volts will pass through your body in less than a second.

• A sky lit up with jagged lightning bolts is nothing new, but did you know that lightning exists in the shape of a ball? Ball lightning is a grapefruit-sized, crackling, glowing sphere that has been seen moving in the aisles of flying airplanes and floating down chimneys.

• Lightning can release as much as 3,750,000,000 kilowatts of power.

• Energy in a circuit travels almost at the speed of light, 300,000 km a second (about 186,000 miles per second).

• The Delta Dart (F-106B) was struck over 700 times during lightning research missions.