eli5 how static electricity works and how it’s different from the stuff in our wall sockets/ lightning?
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Static electricity is generates in many way, but the fundamental is sepration of charge. Like in a thundercloud for instance you have negative charge at the bottom, positive charge at the top, this seperation is called “potential”. When the charge is high enough, it starts to exert an influence on the ground and small areas of positive charge form between the cloud and the ground, when one of these is large enough (google positive streamers) it completes the circuit and you get a catastrophic return stroke, or discharge, and what you see is lightning.
Static electricity you generate by say, rubbing a baloon on your head is just a smaller version. Static generated this way has very little current so it doesn’t kill you. The stuff coming out your wall AC socket as a lot of current, so there is much more “power” behind it.
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