Lightning and Sparks (Electrical Properties of Materials #5)

What is so special about silicon? Why are some materials more conductive to electricity than others? Where does static electricity come from? This 14-video lecture series introduces electronics from a materials perspective, and is based on a course which all freshman engineering students take at the National University of Singapore.

In this video:
01:16​ Benjamin Franklin's kite experiment
04:57 Ionization of gas in the atmosphere
05:35 Definition of electric field
08:06 Breakdown of air in a bolt of lightning
09:24 Definition of drift velocity and mobility
14:01 Definition of current density
16:37 Why does lightning emit light?
18:40 Carbon arc lamp

Nearly 70 additional practice problems are available in the MOOC version of this course, along with supplemental videos:
https://www.edx.org/course/electronic...

Aaron Danner is a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the National University of Singapore.
http://danner.group

Videos were filmed by NUS Centre for Instructional Technology with additional editing by Cheryl Lim.
@randomcheryl