The discharge of ____ in thunderclouds creates lightning bolts.

• A. Current
• B. Static electricity
• C. Electrons
• D. Voltage

Answer: (B)

Lightning happens when the built-up charges inside a thundercloud suddenly release their stored energy. That stored buildup is what we call static electricity. In the cloud, collisions between ice particles and droplets separate charges, creating regions of positive and negative charge and a large electric potential between them. When this potential becomes huge enough, air between those regions ionizes and becomes a conductor, allowing a rapid flow of charge to move and neutralize the difference—producing the bright flash and accompanying thunder. The other terms describe the flow or the driving force, not the stored charge itself, so they don’t fit as the thing being discharged.