1. Ch. 23: Static Electricity Vocabulary: static electricity, electron, electric force, electric discharge

2. What is Static Electricity? Static electricity is the build up of an electric charge on an object. The word static means “not moving” so static electricity, unlike other electricity does not move through wires. If a large enough charge builds up however, it can “jump” from one object to another. When static electricity “jumps” it is called an electric discharge.

3. Building a Charge Everyone has been shocked by static electricity before. It’s the jolt that you get on a cold day when you open a door. It’s the little zap you give your brother or sister after rubbing your feet on the carpet. It’s when you rub a balloon on your head and stick it to the wall. But where does static electricity come from?

4. Building a Charge In order to study static electricity, you need to know a little about atoms. All objects are made up of atoms. Atoms are made of three parts: the protons (colored red), the neutrons (colored blue), and the electrons (colored gray). For right now, we are going to ignore the neutrons. Static electricity is all about electrons and protons.

5. Building a Charge Protons are positively charged. (+) Electrons are negatively charged. (-) Electrons are constantly flying around the center of the atom, and sometimes when two objects rub against each other some of the electrons come off. This leaves one object positively charged (with too many protons) and the other object negatively charged (with too many electrons) and both objects are unbalanced. Atoms do not like being unbalanced, and the object that has too many protons will try to pick up new electrons from where ever it can. Likewise, the object that has too many electrons will try to get rid of the extra ones. Either way, if one of those objects is you when your atoms are unbalanced…

7. Electric Force The electric force of static electricity is very similar to the way the magnetic field works in magnets. Objects that are charged the same are pushed away, and objects that are charged oppositely are pulled together. That’s why when you rub a balloon on your hair, it sticks to the wall. The electrons from the balloon rub off, onto your hair making the balloon negatively charged. The wall is positively charged, and bingo, just like a magnet, the two stick together.

9. Questions About Chapter 23 1.How are electric forces and magnetic fields similar? 2.If a girl rubs a balloon against her hair, and her hair has a negative charge; what charge does the balloon have? 3.What is an electric discharge? 4.How do you build up a static charge? 5.What are the three parts that make up atoms?