Static electricity is an imbalance of electric charges within or on the surface of a material. The charge remains until it is able to move away by means of an electric current or electrical discharge. Static electricity is named in contrast with current electricity, which flows through wires or other conductors and transmits energy.
A static electric charge can be created whenever two surfaces contact and separate, and at least one of the surfaces has a high resistance to electric current (and is therefore an electrical insulator). The effects of static electricity are familiar to most people because people can feel, hear, and even see the spark as the excess charge is neutralized when brought close to a large electrical conductor (for example, a path to ground), or a region with an excess charge of the opposite polarity (positive or negative). The familiar phenomenon of a static shock – more specifically, an electrostatic discharge – is caused by the neutralization of charge. [see Voiding]
Causes
Materials are made of atoms that are normally electrically neutral because they contain equal numbers of positive charges (protons in their nuclei) and negative charges (electrons in "shells" surrounding the nucleus). The phenomenon of static electricity requires a separation of positive and negative charges. When two materials are in contact, electrons may move from one material to the other, which leaves an excess of positive charge on one material, and an equal negative charge on the other. When the materials are separated they retain this charge imbalance.
Contact-induced charge separation
Electrons can be exchanged between materials on contact; materials with weakly bound electrons tend to lose them while materials with sparsely filled outer shells tend to gain them. This is known as the triboelectric effect and results in one material becoming positively charged and the other negatively charged. The polarity and strength of the charge on a material once they are separated depends on their relative positions in the triboelectric series. The triboelectric effect is the main cause of static electricity as observed in everyday life, and in common high-school science demonstrations involving rubbing different materials together (e.g., fur against an acrylic rod). Contact-induced charge separation causes your hair to stand up and causes "static cling" (for example, a balloon rubbed against the hair becomes negatively charged; when near a wall, the charged balloon is attracted to positively charged particles in the wall, and can "cling" to it, appearing to be suspended against gravity).
Pressure-induced charge separation
Applied mechanical stress generates a separation of charge in certain types of crystals and ceramics molecules.
Heat-induced charge separation
Heating generates a in certain types of crystals and ceramics molecules. in the atoms or molecules of certain materials. All pyroelectric materials are also piezoelectric. The atomic or molecular properties of heat and pressure response are closely related.
Charge-induced charge separation
A charged object brought close to an electrically neutral object causes a separation of charge within the neutral object. Charges of the same polarity are repelled and charges of the opposite polarity are attracted. As the force due to the interaction of electric charges falls off rapidly with increasing distance, the effect of the closer (opposite polarity) charges is greater and the two objects feel a force of attraction. The effect is most pronounced when the neutral object is an electrical conductor as the charges are more free to move around. Careful grounding of part of an object with a charge-induced charge separation can permanently add or remove electrons, leaving the object with a global, permanent charge. This process is integral to the workings of the Van de Graaff generator, a device commonly used to demonstrate the effects of static electricity. Wikipedia, Static Electricity
See Also
Capacitor
Chapter 6 - The True Nature of Electricity and Gravitation - I, page 129
Chapter 6 - The True Nature of Electricity and Gravitation - II, page 138
Chapter 6 - The True Nature of Electricity and Gravitation - III, page 140
Chapter 6 - The True Nature of Electricity and Gravitation - IV, page 145
Chapter 6 - The True Nature of Electricity and Gravitation - V, page 149
Contractive Electricity vs Radiant Magnetism
counterspacial di-electricity
dielectricity
dual characteristic of electricity
Electricity
ELECTRICITY - Snell
Electricity from Light
Electricity from Running Water
Electricity from Sound
Electricity from Vibration
ELECTRICITY FROM VIBRATION - Snell
Electricity from Water
Electricity from Water Vapor
electricity luminous
Electricity records Mind-thought in Rings of Light
electrostatic scalar potential
Ferroelectricity
Figure 13.08 - Triple Streams of Electricity
Figure 16.01 - Electricity Develops Mind and Matter
Figure 16.02 - Electricity Evolves Mass into Spheres
Figure 16.03 and Figure 16.04 - Electricity as Charged Life and Discharged Death
Figure 16.06 - Russells Genero-Radiative Coils - Electricity Expands and Contracts
Figure 16.07 - Magnetism is Radiant while Electricity is Concentrative or Assimilative
Figure 16.09 - Triple Streams of Electricity
FORCES DERIVED FROM INTRA-ATOMIC ENERGY - MOLECULAR FORCES, ELECTRICITY, SOLAR HEAT, ETC.
Keely - Electricity from Space
Kellner - Electricity from Space
law of negative electricity
Law of Variation of Atomic Oscillation by Electricity
Law of Variation of Atomic Pitch by Electricity and Magnetism
Laws of Electrostatic Induction
MAGNETISM AND ELECTRICITY
magnetostatic scalar potential
Matter Waves and Electricity
Negative Electricity
Part 16 - Electricity and Magnetism
Piezoelectricity
Positive electricity
Pyroelectricity
Rheostatic Fluids
static
Static energy
Tesla - Electricity from Space
The Wonder World to be Created by Electricity
thermoelectricity
Triboelectric series
triboelectric effect
two kinds of electricity
What Electricity Is - Bloomfield Moore
What Electricity Is - Keely
What Electricity Is - Pond
What Electricity Is - Russell
What Electricity Is - Schlosser
What Electricity Is - Steiner
What electricity is - Stranges
What Electricity Is - Tesla
WHAT IS ELECTRICITY
Wimshurst Machine
13.06 - Triple Currents of Electricity
16.02 - Walter Russell describing what electricity is
16.04 - Nikola Tesla describing what electricity is
16.05 - John Worrell Keely describing what electricity is
16.05.05 - Electricity and Thought are Intimately Related
16.07 - Electricity is a Polar Exchange
16.09 - Positive Electricity is Compression
16.10 - Positive Electricity
16.15 - Negative Electricity is Expansion
16.16 - Negative Electricity - Russell
16.17 - Negative Electricity - Tesla
16.29 - Triple Currents of Electricity
7B.21 - Electricity