Static Electricity

[Misho44]

Hey everyone,

 

So basically i'm trying to learn more about static electricity and how it works, but I'm having difficulties grasping some concepts.

 

 

1) I've learned that when you shuffle your feet on the carpet, electrons from your body would rub off onto the carpet while the insulating carpet will resist losing it's own electrons....so now you're positively charged.

 

Other sites and video show the opposite though. They say rather the carpet is giving away the electrons to your body since humans are good conductors and so the body is now negatively charged.

 

So I'm not sure which is the correct pattern of transfer, or does it even matter?

 

 

2) Now if we take the first scenario and assume a person is positively charged, Since the doorknob is a good conductor, when it is touched by the person, the electrons from the metal will jump to your hand to balance the charge. So my question is, if the electrons on the doorknob are transferred to the person's hand to create the balance, wouldn't that create an unbalance to the doorknob and make it positively charged?

[GAHD]

[hazelm]

Hey everyone,

 

So basically i'm trying to learn more about static electricity and how it works, but I'm having difficulties grasping some concepts.

 

 

1) I've learned that when you shuffle your feet on the carpet, electrons from your body would rub off onto the carpet while the insulating carpet will resist losing it's own electrons....so now you're positively charged.

 

Other sites and video show the opposite though. They say rather the carpet is giving away the electrons to your body since humans are good conductors and so the body is now negatively charged.

 

So I'm not sure which is the correct pattern of transfer, or does it even matter?

 

 

2) Now if we take the first scenario and assume a person is positively charged, Since the doorknob is a good conductor, when it is touched by the person, the electrons from the metal will jump to your hand to balance the charge. So my question is, if the electrons on the doorknob are transferred to the person's hand to create the balance, wouldn't that create an unbalance to the doorknob and make it positively charged?

I have always heard it is *1" - from carpet to body to metal.  I was going to add to this but I'm not sure it applies since it may not be "static electricity".  Only say I think we can be electrically charged more than one way - no carpet involved.

Edited January 5, 2020 by hazelm