We all love the idea of Benjamin Franklin, flying a kite in the middle of a thunderstorm and finding out fundamental truths about the world.
But how accurate are our ideas?
Imagery of the kite experiment is often riddled with errors – what does that mean for how we understand science and scientists?
In this video, Ellen Phiddian pulls out a few misconceptions in the kite experiment, and takes a closer look at what really happened.
Read more: Ben Franklin’s kite experiment: debunking misconceptions
Originally published by Cosmos as Scientific error: rethinking Benjamin Franklin’s kite experiment
Ellen Phiddian
Ellen Phiddian is a science journalist at Cosmos. She has a BSc (Honours) in chemistry and science communication, and an MSc in science communication, both from the Australian National University.
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