How do we charge an object? A. Charging by rubbing Positive (+) Air Human Hands Rabbit’s Fur Glass Human Hair Mica Wool Cats Fur Silk Aluminum Paper Cotton Rubber Balloon Hard Rubber Gold/Platinum Polyester Vinyl Saran Wrap Negative (-) Triboelectric Series   Electrostatic Voltages Means of Static Generation 10 – 20 % Humidity 65 – 90 % Humidity Walking across carpet 35,000 1,500 Walking across vinyl floor 12,000 250 Worker at bench 6,000 100 Vinyl envelopes for work instructions 7000 600 Common poly bag picked up from bench 20,000 1,200 Careful when you fill up your gas tank!

How do we charge an object? A. Charging by rubbing Conductors – charge will distribute around the surface to try until equilibrium is achieved. - charge only resides on surface, not inside. On symmetric objects, charge distributes uniformly On non-symmetric objects, charge collects at sharp points. Insulators – charge cannot move, so it remains localized around the contact region.

The induction process is characterized by the following general features: A charged object is needed to charge an object by induction. Yet there is never any contact made between the charged object and the object being charged. Only conductors can be charged by the induction process. The process relies on the fact that a charged object can force or induce the movement of electrons about the material being charged. The object being charged ends up with a charge which is the opposite of the object being used to charge it. A ground must be used to charge on the object. The ground allows for electron movement into or out of the object being charged.