Hi. It’s Winter again and the static electric at my home is horrible. I already have a humidifier on and am wearing cotton clothing. I’m trying to find a solution and there’s recommendation to touch something metal first (e.g. a key) instead of being shocked by any metallic door handles — I don’t get it? wouldn’t I just be shocked by the key instead? Thanks.
In: Physics
the reason why touching the key itself won’t shock you is because the key’s capacitance is low, it can only accept so much energy before it’s at the same charge as your body, it’s so low you don’t feel it, but if you touch something that’s either larger or grounded (like a computer case), your body will completely discharge the built up static charge via an arc, and if that charge is large enough it’ll hurt
using the key to touch other things means the discharge/arc will originate from the key, the key can’t feel anything
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