We are two desperate high shcool Juniors from Prairie View High School
in Kansas and we need as much information as possible on St. Elmo's
Fire.  If you could give us any information possible, it would be very
helpful.  Please send
Thanks

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St.  Elmos fire is an electrical discharge that occurs at points and sharp
edges such as radio antenna, ships masts and mountain ridges.  During
electrical storms there is a seperation of positive ions and electrons.
Charge seperation occurs between the earth and the sky creating electric
fields which can be thousands of volts per meter.  Free electrons in the
earth (or say in the hull of a ship or airplane) feel the field and begin
to move around.  They accumulate with greater density near sharp edges and
the result is that if there is magnification of the electric field there.
If enough charge builds up some of the charges will leak off in 'mini
lightning bolts'.  this discharge is what is called St.  Elmos fire.  For
more information you should look in books about
lightning and meterology.  

P.S.  Some lightning rods work by creating St. Elmos fire.  The idea is
that they create lots of 'mini lightning bolts' so charge is drained away
from a strusture making it less likely that a big bolt will strike there
since it is more neutral once the excess chgarges have been removed.