Think of atoms as building blocks for all the stuff in the world. Most of the time, atoms have the same number of protons and electrons and the atom charge is neutral not positive or negative.
Static electricity is created when positive and negative charges aren't balanced. Protons and neutrons don't move around much, but electrons love to jump all over the place! When an object or person has extra electrons, it has a negative charge. Things with opposite charges are always attracted to each other, so positive charges seek negative ones and negative ones seek positives.
Got it? If you scuff your feet on your living room rug, you pick up extra electrons and have a negative charge. Electrons move more easily through certain materials like metal, which scientists call conductors. When you touch a doorknob or something else made of metal , which has a positive charge with few electrons, the extra electrons want to jump from you to the knob.
That tiny shock you feel is a result of the quick movement of these electrons. You can think of a shock as a river of millions of electrons flying through the air.
Pretty cool, huh? Static electricity happens more often during the colder seasons because the air is drier, and it's easier to build up electrons on the skin's surface. The positive charge of the conductor is called an induced charge because you created an electric charge where one did not exist.
As your hand gets closer to the positively charged conductor, the electrons in your hand are attracted to the positive electric charge. So, the electrons jump from your hand to the conductor. This movement of excess, or extra, charged particles is called discharge. Often, a spark is associated with an electric discharge. Lightning is a type of electric discharge. Negative charges build in the atmosphere as air molecules in the storm's downdraft rub against air molecules in the storm's updraft.
The negatively charged air induces a positive charge in the ground or nearby area. It can be dangerous for an electric discharge to occur.
Therefore, people have designed ways to ground the electricity. In other words, we have pathways for the electric charge to travel and not produce harm. This process is called grounding because many times the electric charge is directed into the ground. For example, many buildings have a lightning rod at the top.
The rod is attached to a conductive wire that leads to the ground. So, when the lightning strikes the rod, the electrons flow into the ground rather than into the building.
0コメント