What Causes Static Electricity
Static electricity occurs in various places in everyday life. For example, you may get zapped when closing the door of your car after getting out. You may have experienced plastic wrap clinging to itself when you pull it out to cover a dish. These are all caused by static electricity.
In the example of a car door, static electricity occurs due to your body being in contact with the car seat and rubbing against it when getting out of the car. In the case of plastic wrap, static electricity is generated when you pull out (separate) the food wrap from the core.
As shown in these examples, static electricity occurs when there is contact, friction, and separation.
Let’s look at each factor in more detail.
Contact charging
When two different things collide with each other, when they come into contact with each other, negative charges move from one side to the other. This is known as contact charging.
Static electricity occurs not only with specific stimuli such as friction and separation, but also with simple contact.
Friction charging
A friction charge is generated by static electricity that occurs when two objects rub against each other.
In the previous example of the car, static electricity is generated by your body rubbing against the seat. The movement of negative charge caused by friction between your body and seat results in static electricity.
Static electricity that occurs when you take off clothes is generated by the movement of negative charge caused by friction between the clothes and your body, or between pieces of clothing.
Separation charging
Separation charging occurs when static electricity is generated by the separation of two objects that were in contact.
In the case of plastic wrap mentioned earlier, static electricity occurs when you separate the wrap from the core.
Static electricity is also generated when you peel off a sticker from its backing paper. The movement of negative charge between the sticker and backing paper results in static electricity.
