Have you ever felt sparks fly when you pulled your jacket off? Or did you ever get a crackling shock when you touched a doorknob? These things happen because your body has been collecting electricity.
The sparks and crackles are called static electricity – electrons that pile up in one place. On cool, dry days, you scrape electrons loose from things. When you walk across a rug, or when your jacket rubs against you, the loose electrons stick to your body.
The loose electrons cannot flow through you. But they can jump from you to a material that has fewer electrons. So when you touch a doorknob or pull off your jacket, that’s exactly what happens. Then you hear the crackle of jumping electrons – and sometimes you feel it, too!
See the pull that electrons make by creating your own sticky balloon. Blow up a balloon and tie a piece of string to it. Rub the balloon with a wool cloth. Then touch the balloon to the cloth and let go of the string. When you rub the balloon with the cloth, it picks up electrons from the cloth. The balloon then has more electrons than the cloth. When you put the balloon next to the cloth, the piled-up electrons on the balloon begin to move back to the cloth. They pull so hard that the balloon sticks to the cloth. That’s static electricity!
Picture Credit : Google