DLTK's Crafts for Kids
National Kite Flying Day - February 8th
National Kite Flying Day is celebrated in the United States every year on February 8th. Of course the best way to celebrate the holiday is to take the kite out for a spin, so lots of families, children, and kite-lovers rush to the fields and beaches to fly their kites!
The science behind kites is fascinating! There are three different forces that act on a kite when it is flying. First of all, there is the force of the string keeping the kite tethered to it's owner so it doesn't fly away. Then there is the force of gravity that tries to pull the kite back towards the earth. And then of course the most important is the force of the wind, which is what keeps the kite in the air. That is why windy days are the best kite flying days! A kite is said to be in equillibrium when those three forces are equal, which causes the kite to stand still in the air. If the force of the wind isn't strong enough, then the kite will go lower in the sky and potentially fall all the way to the ground. And if the force of the wind is particularly strong, then the kite rises high into the air.
The Benjamin Franklin Kite Experiment
Photograph by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash
On June 15th, 1752 Benjamin Franklin used a kite to conduct an experiment proving the electrical properties of lightening! During a thunderstorm, he flew a special kite into the sky. It had a piece of metal at the top and was attached to a hemp wire that got wet from the rain (the water allowed the hemp rope to conduct electricity). The hemp rope was then attached to a silk cord which was less conductive and kept Benjamin Franklin and his son William safer from the electric current. They also attached a metal key to the nearest part of the hemp rope. The lightening never struck the kite because Benjamin Franklin and his son would have been seriously hurt if it had. But the kite did pick up electricity that was hanging around in the air due to the storm. Benjamin Franklin was able to prove this by touching the key and getting an electric shock. I'm not usually that happy to get an electric shock, but I bet Benjamin Franklin was ecstatic!
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Other Holidays You May Be Interested In:
- Sky Day - June 30th