How can electricity be static? It’s very existence is a literal definition of something in motion.
In: Physics
Static electricity isn’t static, it’s just the name we give it.
It’s actually arising from a charge on one item, and a lack of a charge on another, that when you join them together they create a path that facilitates the electricity (electrons) to flow.
This is more related to “potential”. If an item at A is at a high potential, and an item at B is at a low potential then, eventually, depending on the potentials and the distance and the materials between (e.g. air), the potential difference will overcome the resistance of the materials and thus create a flow of electricity. Like air pressure at point A and a lower pressure at point B, eventually the high pressure will burst into the low pressure area naturally and try to “even it out”. We call potential difference “voltage”. Voltage overcoming a particular resistance will generate current, which is the movement of electrons.
A “static charge” is just a potential building up on one item, that’s all. It stays on that item. Not “still”, but just around that item and flowing around it, a bit like a high-pressure weather front, it is constantly swirling and evening itself out and moving, even microscopically but it stays over the same mountain. But when the high-pressure is put next to low-pressure, the high-pressure air will blow into the low-pressure area, and the same with the potentials and electrons.
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