Static electricity often just seems like an everyday annoyance when a wool sweater crackles as you pull it off, or when a doorknob delivers an unexpected zap. Regardless, the phenomenon is much more ...

There's a reason you may notice it more in the winter. Excess static electricity is always a shock to the system—literally—but if you're experiencing shocks more so than not, annoying is an ...

Sebastian Deffner is affiliated with the Department of Physics at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). Static electricity is a ubiquitous part of everyday life. It’s all around us, ...

Ancient Greeks discovered that when animal fur and amber were rubbed together, the fur could be used to attract feathers, glass dust and other lightweight objects. It wasn’t until 1600 AD, however, ...

Static electricity is an imbalance in the amount of positive and negative charges found with in the surface of an object. The sudden flow of static electricity or Electrostatic discharge (ESD) can ...