How do you get static electricity? How does that work?
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I’m not sure why this is under planetary science, but basically you’re picking up a charge from something you touch and then it discharges when you touch something with a different charge, kinda like tiny lightning.
Think about when you walk on carpet and then get shocked by a doorknob. Shuffling across the carpet generates friction that encourages electrons to move, building up electric charge on the surface of both the carpet and your skin. The electrons don’t like this, they always want to be neutral. You then go and touch a doorknob made of metal, which is infamously conductive, and that static electricity discharges so that it can neutralize that charge you’ve picked up. Sometimes you don’t even have to touch the doorknob, the electrons can jump through the air in a flash of tiny lightning if your hand is close enough.
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