Movie day, tiktakers! You are at home with
your friends watching a super interesting
movie, when someone asks you to pass the popcorn.
You get up from the couch and pass on the
bowl, at the moment your fingers rub against
each other just a second, but...zap! A cramp
runs through your body leaving you baffled...
and the popcorn on the floor.
Does this sound familiar to you, tiktakers?
It's static electricity, a phenomenon that
happens quite frequently. We know that all
objects are made up of atoms, and these atoms
are made up of protons, neutrons, and electrons.
Each one has a different electric charge,
and as you have probably heard, opposite charges
attract each other
while same charges repel each other.
And what does all this have to do with the
cramps that we sometimes experience when touching
some objects? Listen to this: when we rub
two things together, what we are doing is
charging them with energy. Electrons are the
only particles that can move from one object
to another, so that with friction some objects
lose them, and others gain them, depending
on the type of material they are made of.
This means that, after this action, one of
the elements is left with an excess of energy,
and the other with less energy. By bringing
them together, both will interact with each
other and release that energy: if they have
different charges they will attract each other,
and if they are the same they will repel each
other. Uff, all this probably sounds a bit
technical, but don't worry! With this simple
experiment, you will understand it.
One of the most famous experiments is to get
an inflated balloon and rub it on a wool sweater.
This way we load it with static electricity
so that if we later put it close to small
pieces of paper, the paper will stick to the
balloon!
We can also see it with that same balloon
but rubbing it to our hair. When we lift it
a little we will see how our hair rises and
sticks to it, defying gravity. And the more
friction we make, the greater the effect will
be!
Now we know why sometimes we feel those cramps
when touching an object or another person:
it is because one of the parties is passing
its electrical charge excess to the other.
We certainly live in an electrifying world...!
