What causes static electricity?
MINNEAPOLIS — When someone touches something and gets shocked, it's awkward and a bit painful.
What causes static electricity? And what actually happens when you get shocked?
Visitors of the Electricity Party exhibit at the Bakken Museum in south Minneapolis are making the best of the uncomfortable situation.
"It's like a surprise," one boy at the museum said.
Another person described it as sharp like their finger was pricked.
"Static electricity is what happens in the world, in the natural world, when two different types of materials run together and they build up a lot of extra negative charges," said Anika Taylor, vice president of programs with the Bakken Museum.
Everything is made up of atoms, and within atoms are electrons that are positively or negatively charged.
Nature likes equilibrium — so when two there are more electrons in one material, it jumps to another surface.
If someone walks across a carpet filled with electrons, that person will pick up static electricity. When that person goes to shake another person's hand, a shock will occur.
The same happens when taking clothes out of a dryer.
"So that laundry, it's the same story. It's two pieces of laundry rubbing together as they are tumbling around in the dryer," said Taylor. "Or when your hair is standing up, it's usually because it was rubbing a piece of your clothing. That's generating static electricity that can either make your hair stand up or something stick to your hair."
She says this happens most often in the winter.
"In the winter, when it's just that dry air, it all stays stuck so you give it something to jump to," said Taylor.
In the summer, there are water particles are in the air that intercept the "shock."
The most common example of static electricity is lightning.
That's when clouds have a lot of negative charges and those negative charges jump between clouds, or between clouds and the ground.
That's the only time static electricity is dangerous.