what is "static electricity"??

Question

As it is occurred often to me, I want to know about this subject. Could you explain about it??

Answer 1

When two materials rub against each other (such as a baloon and a person's head), electrons can often be transferred from one object to another. This builds up a negative charge on one object (due to a gain in electrons), and a positive charge in the other object (due to loss of electrons). The buildup of charge can discharge into a grounded object, producing a spark. This is known as static electricity.

Answer 2

It's the charge that you create when you scuff your feet on a rug. Then when you touch a doorknob, you get a small shock. That's static electricity.
The reason why it works is a little more complicated. To start, you have to know that every object is made up of billions of tiny particles, called protons and electrons. These particles are so small they can only be seen with special microscopes.

Despite their small size, protons and electrons carry an electrical charge. Protons carry a "positive" charge, while electrons carry a "negative" energy charge.

Usually, the two different charges balance each other out, and nothing happens. But when two objects with like charges (all positive or all negative) come together, the charges repel and the objects move away from each other. Objects with opposite charges attract each other because the different charges want to enter a state of balance with each other.

Objects can get a negative charge by picking up electrons from other objects. For example, when your shoes scuff against the rug, your shoes are actually picking up electrons from the rug. The electrons fly over your body, giving you a negative charge.

Your new electrons fly over your body because they are looking for a positive charge. If you touch a metal doorknob, the electrons on your body will leap into the metal, attracted by the protons there. The transfer of electrons is actually a small electrical current, and produces the tiny electric shock you feel.

Lightning is like static electricity, except on a much bigger scale. Both lightning and static electricity happen because of the attraction between the opposite charges.

Answer 3

Static electricity is, as stated by some other answerers, when electrons are transferred from one object to another, but the electrons cannot flow freely back. The two objects typically have to be rubbed together in order to physically strip one material of its electrons.

The "static" part means that the electrons do not flow freely from one charged object to another object (uncharged, charged oppositely, nor charged differently). Thus, static electricity usually exists between insulators, since insulators do not allow the free flow of electrons.

Conductors, on the other hand, do not hold static electricity. Even if you have one conductor with many electrons and one without, as soon as the conductors touch, all of the electrons will distribute themselves over the combined area of the two conductors. This is incredibly short-lived, usually just a mere spark, at which point the two conductors, being equally charged, no longer have a potential difference (voltage). (A similar thing happens when you've accumulated static electricity and then touch a metal pole which shocks you, except that only depletes the added valence electrons from a particular part of your body, which explains why you can be shocked numerous times after you've built up enough static electricity.)

In any form of electricity, opposite charges attract. But as alluded to above, insulators keep this static charge longer because the electrons are not transferred as quickly.

--The following is additional information which you may or may not find useful--

Whether an insulator loses or gains electrons when rubbed against another insulator depends on the interaction of the two materials. It's almost impossible to determine theoretically, however it can be experimentally determined, and can be found in reference tables in books and on the internet.

Also, any charged object will attract any uncharged object. When a charge is brought near a charged insulator, all of the electrons for the individual atoms will essentially be "pushed away" from the side of the atom nearest the charge. In conductors, the same thing happens, except that since the conductors allow electrons to flow freely from atom to atom, all (or most) of the valence electrons will leave the actual atoms on the side nearest the charged object, and instead accumulate on the side furthest from the charge.

Answer 4

It's also important to remember that there aren't different kinds of electricity.
Whenever electrons or ions are moving or when there is an excess of positive or negative charge somewhere it's called electricity. It doesn't matter if a charge difference was created by a battery or by rubbing your shoes on the carpet. It's both electricity. The only difference is that by rubbing you get a higher voltage (several thousand volts) but much less current then with a battery. It would even be possible to replace the generators in power plants by a machine that rubs objects together to create electricity but of course that would be very inefficient and so no one would do it.

Answer 5

The term "static" means it is not moving. When applied to electricity it means that this form of electricity is not moving through a wire.

Static electricity is a localized production of excess charge. The build up of charge on one object will cause an unbalanced state that tried to pass the unbalance to something else in order to regain some stability.

If you walk through a carpeted room in the winter when heat has dried out the air you will accumulate an excess charge on your body. This charge will try to jump to another material that will conduct the charge better and help dissipate the unbalanced condition. You see the spark arc, feel the zap of energy, and may even smell the "burn".

Answer 6

Static electricity is created when an object gives up or gains electrons.

Rubbing wool over something made of plastic or hard rubber gives that object a positive charge which will attract any object with a lesser charge.
The wool gives up electrons to the plastic. This kind of charge is called "static" because it is not moving along a wire or other conductor.

The same thing happens to you when you take of e.g. wool or synthetic cloth.

Answer 7

Static electricity
Electric charge at rest, generally produced by friction or electrostatic induction. Triboelectrification is the process whereby charge transfer between dissimilar materials, at least one of which must have a high electrical resistivity, occurs due to rubbing or mere contact. See also Electric charge; Electrical resistivity.

In modern industry, highly insulating synthetic materials, such as plastic powders and insulating liquids, are used in large quantities in an ever-increasing number of applications. Such materials charge up readily, and large quantities of electrical energy may develop with an attendant risk of incendiary discharges. When, for example, powder is pneumatically transported along pipes, charge levels of up to about 100 microcoulombs per kilogram can develop and potentials of thousands of volts are generated within powder layers and the powder cloud. Energetic sparking from charged powder may initiate an explosion of the powder cloud. Similar problems occur when insulating liquids, such as certain fuels, are pumped along pipes, and it is essential that strict grounding procedures are followed during the refueling of aircraft, ships, and other large vehicles.

The capacity of a person for retaining charge depends upon stature, but is typically about 150 picofarads. Even the simple operations of removing items of clothing or sliding off a chair can lead to body discharges to ground of about 0.1 μC, which are energetic enough to ignite a mixture of natural gas and air. Human body capacitance is sufficiently high that, if poorly conducting shoes are worn, body potential may rise to 15,000 V or so above ground during industrial operations such as emptying bags of powder. Sparking may then occur with energy exceeding the minimum ignition energy of powder or fumes, so initiating a fire or explosion. Conducting footware should be used to prevent charge accumulation on personnel in industrial situations where triboelectrification may occur. See also Capacitance.

In the microelectronics industry, extremely low-energy discharges, arising from body potentials of only a few tens of volts, can damage microelectronics systems or corrupt computer data. During the handling of some sensitive semiconductor devices, it is imperative that operators work on metallic grounded surfaces and are themselves permanently attached to ground by conducting wrist straps

Answer 8

It's the electrical charge that builds up on the surface of your body. It is more pronounced in dry conditions. You get that great spark and shock when you ground out by touching something else that is grounded and conductive like metal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Static_electricity#.27Static.27_electricity

Answer 9

The electricity formed due to a stationary charge. It is the electricity when charge is not allowed to flow.

Answer 10

static electricity is a vital branch of physics which helps us in study of charges at rest
the basic formua related to this topic is


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