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nTherenare two kinds of electricity – the kind that moves briskly along innwhat we call an electric current, and the kind that sits around,npiling up, on a surface of an object. The word staticnmeans “unmoving” or “unchanging,” so you can see that staticnelectricity is the latter kind.
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nThingsnare made of stuff, what we call matter, and matter is made up ofnatoms that are usually electrically neutral. That is, atoms generallynhave no positive or negative charge. The reason that atoms arenelectrically neutral is that they have the same number of positivenparticles (protons, found in the central nucleus) and negativenparticles (electrons, found in the outer cloud surrounding thennucleus).
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nThenthing is, electrons can get bumped off when two surfaces come intoncontact and then separate again. When it loses an electron, an atomnhas more protons than electrons, and so it has a positive charge.
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nAlso,nan atom can collect the bumped-off electron from another atom; whennthat happens, it has more electrons than protons, and so it has annegative charge.
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nExamplesnof static electricity vary from socks rubbing together in the driernto lightning, which is probably caused by ice particles bumpingntogether in a cloud. Static charge can be very dangerous – we arenwarned, for example, not to repeatedly get in and out of our seats atna gas station, as the rubbing of car seats and clothing could cause anbuild-up of static electricity, any discharge could cause a spark,nand sparks are dangerous at a gas pump! But static electricity cannalso be harmless fun – such as the crazy hair-dos created bynrubbing a rubber balloon on our hair!
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nFindnout more…
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nScience Made Simple has an article about static electricity and four activitynsuggestions. Science Kids has a much shorter, simpler article on static electricity.
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nInlike this simple, clear demo of water and static electricity—thisnis one experiment that would be easy to do at home!
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nPeoplenat science fairs use Van de Graaff generators to demonstrate staticnelectricity. Here is a vivid demo of hair “standing on end”nbecause of static electricity.nAnd here is Steve Spangler demonstrating the generator.
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nAlsonon this date:
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nBalloon Ascension Day
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nAnniversary of Columbus spotting mermaids (supposedly!)
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