Effects of Static Electricity

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Static electricity around us
Where can static electricity be found in this lab scene?

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Where does static electricity occur?
What do the following familiar events have in common?
 A lightning strike.
 Dusters that attract dust.
 Crackles when combing hair.
 Cling film sticking to your hands.
 Dust being attracted to television screens.
 Clothes clinging to each other in a dryer.
 Getting a shock after rubbing your feet on
a carpet and then touching a metal object.
All these events are due to static electricity.

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What is static electricity?
Static electricity is due to the
build-up of electric charge.
It is called ‘static’ electricity
because the charge is unable
to flow.
The build-up of electric charge
can cause dangerous sparks.
Sometimes, after walking on
a carpet and then touching a
metal object, such as a door
handle, you might get a small
shock. This is caused by
static electricity.

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Is lightning caused by electric charge?
Lightning is an electric
discharge that occurs when
charge builds up in clouds.
The physical properties of
water enables regions of a
cloud to become positively-
or negatively-charged.
When enough charge has
built up, it will follow a path
to Earth.
This movement produces
lightning, which is simply
a big spark!

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What did Benjamin Franklin do?

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Static electricity – summary

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How can static electricity be used?
Static electricity has many uses, including:

 photocopiers
and laser
printers

 spray painting cars

 filtering
factory
smoke

 heart
defibrillators

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How does a photocopier work?

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What happens in a photocopier?

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How does spray painting cars work?

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How does static charge reduce pollution?
A precipitator in the chimney of a power station uses
static electricity to filter smoke particles from waste gases.
The smoke particles pass positively-
through a charged grid and charged
pick up a negative charge. metal
plates
They are then attracted
to the positively-charged
collecting plates. smoke
particles
The smoke particles lose
their charge and fall back metal grid
down the chimney, so the at a high
waste gases emitted are voltage
free of polluting smoke.

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How does a defibrillator work?
A defibrillator is a machine
that uses electricity to correct
faulty heart rhythms.
Fibrillation is an irregular
heart rhythm, often brought
on by a heart attack.
The metal pads of the
defibrillator are placed
on the patient’s chest
and then charged.
This sends a controlled
shock to the patient, which
corrects the heart rhythm.

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Defibrillator instructions

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Uses of static electricity – summary

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Static electricity can be a nuisance!
What causes the following annoying everyday incidents?

 Unruly hair after combing.

 Electric shocks from

radiators in rooms with
nylon carpets.

 Dust collecting on TV
screens and computers.

 Clothes clinging to the

body and to each other.

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Earthing
A charged object can be negatively or positively charged.
 Negatively-charged objects have gained electrons.
 Positively-charged objects have lost electrons.
When an object is connected to the Earth, electrons flow
between the object and the ground, evening out the charges.
Electrons will flow
into a positively-
charged object…

…and out of a
negatively-
charged object.
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Reducing the problem of static electricity

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What are the dangers of static electricity?
Charge builds up when two
insulators are rubbed together.
This can occur when non-
conducting fuel flows through
pipes, when paper is rolled in
paper mills, and when grain flows
through chutes in grain stores.
When static electricity is
discharged, it creates a spark.
One spark is enough to cause a major explosion if it occurs
near flammable materials like fuel or grain dust.
Metal paper rollers and grain chutes are used to prevent
charge building up.

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Refuelling aircraft

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Preventing electric shocks

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Static electricity – useful or a problem?

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Glossary

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Multiple-choice quiz

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