My 5 year old nephew actually asked me this today and i had no way to explain before explaining what electrons are, what is a charge..
How do I simplify it?
In: 14
“Charge” is a fundamental attribute. It’s an entirely new value to describe a particle.
There’s a field that stretches all over space, and we call that the electromagnetic field. “Charge” is the name we call the value in that field at whichever point we’re measuring. Electrons are particles that correspond to a certain value in that field; protons correspond to a different value. Charges come in two different flavors: positive, and negative. This isn’t literally negative values in the electromagnetic field. Think of it more like a color, though even that’s very incomplete. Opposite charges attract each other and like charges repel each other.
Static electricity is when there’s enough of a built-up charge of different types in two objects to cause enough of a difference in “voltage” (how much charge each has, but again: incomplete) between the two that the charges leap across the air to touch each other.
To ELI5 it for a literal five-year-old: You know how if you take two magnets, like poles repel each other and different poles attract each other? Electricity works like that. When two objects build up enough opposite charges, the electricity leaps through the air to equalize those objects. When you put your hand really close to something with a built up charge, you’re making it easier for the electricity to jump.
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