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The spark associated with static electricity is caused by electrostatic discharge, or simply static discharge, as excess charge is neutralized by a flow of charges from or to the surroundings. The feeling of an electric shock is caused by the stimulation of nerves as the current flows through the human body.
An electrostatic generator, or electrostatic machine, is an electrical generator that produces static electricity, or electricity at high voltage and low continuous current. The knowledge of static electricity dates back to the earliest civilizations, but for millennia it remained merely an interesting and mystifying phenomenon , without a ...
Foam peanuts clinging to a cat's fur due to static electricity.The cat's fur becomes charged due to the triboelectric effect.The electric field of the charged fur causes polarization of the molecules of the foam due to electrostatic induction, resulting in a slight attraction of the light plastic pieces to the fur.
Lord Kelvin used this foundation of accumulated knowledge to, in 1859, create an apparatus involving the interaction of a stream of water with the Earth's static electric field to cause charge separation and subsequent measurement of charge to make atmospheric electricity measurements.
Electric potential (also called the electric field potential, potential drop, the electrostatic potential) is defined as the amount of work/energy needed per unit of electric charge to move the charge from a reference point to a specific point in an electric field.
The Leyden jar was used to conduct many early experiments in electricity, and its discovery was of fundamental importance in the study of electrostatics. It was the first means of accumulating and preserving electric charge in large quantities that could be discharged at the experimenter's will, thus overcoming a significant limit to early ...
Static electricity — Class of phenomena involving the imbalanced charge present on an object, typically referring to charge with voltages of sufficient magnitude to produce visible attraction (e.g., static cling), repulsion, and sparks.
Franklin's electrostatic machine on display at the Franklin Institute. Franklin's electrostatic machine is a high-voltage static electricity-generating device used by Benjamin Franklin in the mid-18th century for research into electrical phenomena.