Carol Ann Molnar, age 11, of Yorktown, Indiana, for her question:

How do clouds get positive and negative charges?

Electrical currents and charges are caused by moving atomic particles called electrons. Each electron carries a one unit charge of negative electricity. In the atom, it is balanced by one proton particle that has an equal and opposite charge of positive electricity. Normal atoms are electrically neutral because they have an equal number of positive protons and negative protons that cancel each other out. The protons are securely locked in the tight fisted central nucleus of the atom. The separate electrons orbit around outside the nucleus. The protons stay stubbornly at home. But many outside forces can pry loose the orbiting electrons and this upsets the electrical balance of the atom.

A storm cloud is a wild turmoil of whirling winds, warm and cold, hot and dry. In this turmoil, zillions of electrons are bashed and brushed, sheered and swept from the atoms and molecules of the gaseous vapor of the cloud. Each lost electron takes its negative charge with it and fine positive proton is left without an opposite charge to balance it. The former atom or molecule becomes a positive ion with an extra posi¬tive charge. Zillions of free electrons on the loose build up immense negative charges in the cloud. Meantime the zillions of ions they left build up immense charges of positive electricity.