Let’s learn about static electricity

Static electricity is all around us. It’s the reason clothes stick together when pulled out of the drier. It powers the lightning strikes that zip through storm clouds. It’s also why you might sometimes get a short, sharp shock from touching a doorknob.

Static electricity is a buildup of electric charge. That buildup can happen when two objects bump or rub against each other. Electrons transfer from one object to the other. The object that receives electrons becomes negatively charged. The object that donates them becomes positively charged.

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Objects with opposite charges attract each other. You might have seen this effect if you’ve ever rubbed a balloon against your head. The balloon picks up electrons from your hair — leaving it positively charged and the balloon negative. As a result, when you pull the balloon away from your head, your hair tends to cling to it. Clothes cling together after tumbling around in the drier for the same reason.

Static electricity can also cause sparks. You can sometimes see those tiny sparks in a very dark room. But even in bright light you can feel them. If you shuffle your feet across the carpet, you transfer electrons from the floor to your body. You become negatively charged. When you reach out for a metal doorknob, those excess electrons jump from your hand to the knob. Zap! Such a stream of electrons is known as an electric current — and it can shock your fingertips.

This is the same type of spark behind lightning strikes. Tiny droplets of water or ice churn around inside storm clouds, building up static charge. That charge can suddenly, violently release in a stroke of lightning. The plumes from volcanic eruptions can similarly spark lightning, when tiny bits of ash and dust brush against each other.

Static electricity builds up between some materials more easily than others. But it’s quite common in nature. Insects generate static electricity as they flit through the air. That static charge may draw pollen from flowers to insects as they flutter by. Some huge swarms of insects may even build up as much electricity as a storm cloud.

As common as it is, static electricity remains somewhat mysterious. Scientists still don’t know exactly how charges move from one object to another. Do materials swap individual electrons? Do they trade electrically charged atoms, called ions? We just don’t know. A recent look at the physics behind static electricity uncovered something even stranger. It seems that objects’ individual histories affect how they exchange charges when touched together.

Such big unknowns about static electricity may be the most shocking thing about it.

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How exactly does static shock work? TED-Ed explores.