Characteristics of Electricity - Static Electricity

Question 1

Review of Matter and Energy;
- Matter

Answer 1

Matter; Matter is anything that has mass and takes up space
- Matter is made of Atoms
- Atoms are made of protons, neutrons, and electrons
- Electrons are very VERY far away from the nucleus

Question 1

Review of Matter and Energy;
- Energy

Answer 1

Energy; Energy is anything that can exert (push) a force onto another object
- Since electrons are so far away, they have the ability to jump around from atom to atom.
- When electrons ump from atom to atom it is called a separation of charge
- IT’s important to remember electrons have negative charge.

Question 2

Characteristics of Electrons and Charge;
What is the usually amount difference between protons and electrons? What is the overall charge if the protons and electrons are balanced?

Answer 2

Atoms usually have the same number of protons (positive) and electrons (negative), if the charged of atoms are usually balanced the overall charge is zero.

Question 3

Characteristics of Electrons and Charge;
What happens if a electrons jumps to another atom, what happens if it jumps onto a atom? What happens if there is more protons than electrons?

Answer 3

If an electrons “jumps” to a different atoms, it leaves a charge. If there’s more protons than electrons, it leaves a overall positive charge.
If an electrons “jumps” onto a atom, it ends up with more electrons. If there’s more electrons than protons, it leaves a overall negative charge.

Question 3

Review of moving electrons -
What happens if you rub two objects together, which one has a positive and which one has a negative?

Answer 3

If you rub two materials together, one object will lose electrons. It will get a positive charge. The other object will gain electrons, it will get a negative charge.

Question 3

Review of holding electrons -
How do you know which material gains or loses electrons?

Answer 3

Since some materials will hold their electrons better, they are more likely to gain electrons and become a negative charged. Since some materials will lose their electrons easily, they’ll lose electrons and become positive charged. You can learn this on the Electrostatic Series.

Question 4

Review of moving electrons -
What’s the easiest way to create a separation of charge? How does it happen?

Answer 4

By rub 2 objects together, in which when the materials are in connect the electrons can “jump” from one material to another. (by adding a little energy, it helps the electron jump.

Question 4

Review of static electricity -
What is it called when there is a separation of charge?

Answer 4

It’s called static electricity, static electricity is charge build up on the surface of an object.

Question 5

Understanding Grounding -
What is grounding?

Answer 5

Since Earth has a huge storage of lots of positive and negative charges, once we make a connection to the Earth it causes electrons to flow to the positive charge. This is called ground, since the build up is going to the ground and often feel this as a shock.

Question 6

Understanding grounding -
What is a example of grounding?

Answer 6

A great display of grounding is lighting, lightning is a build up of negative charges in clouds that is grounded by lightning.
Process -
one; clouds are made of water vapor
two; If the water vapor swirls around and rubs against each other enough, it can cause a build up of negative charges in a cloud
third; If the charge is build up enough, it can force an ear on the ground to become positively charged.
fourth; Once there is enough charge built up, the build up of electrons shoot down from the cloud into the positive in the ground
fifth; This grounds the cloud and forms lightening.