Static Electricity Flashcards
How does static charge build up?
Static charge can build when two insulating materials are rubbed together; the friction between the materials cause electrons to be transferred from one material to the other. One becomes negatively charged, the other becomes positively charged.
What is a Van De Graaff Generator?
A Van de Graaff Generator is a machine that is used to build up static charge. It uses the method of rubbing two insulating materials together.
What are the uses of static electricity?
The uses of static electricity are: Photocopiers, laser printers, spray painting cars and filtering factory smoke.
What happens in a photocopier?
- The rotating drum in the photocopier becomes charged.
- Original document is placed on the photocopier.
- Light reflected from the original document is projected onto the drum.
- Drum loses charge in areas hit by the light from the original document.
- Toner is attracted to the charged areas of the drum.
- Toner is transferred from drum to a sheet of paper.
- Toner is fused to the paper by heating and the copy is ready.
How does static charge reduce pollution?
A precipitator in a chimney of power station uses static electricity to filter smoke particle from waste gases.
The smoke particle pass through a charged grid and pick up a negative charge. They then are attracted to the positively charged collecting plates.
The smoke particles lose their charge and fall back down the chimney so the waste gases emitted are free of polluting smoke.
What is Static Electricity?
Static electricity is due to the build up of electric charge. It is called “static” electricity because the charge is unable to flow (move). Sometimes, the build up of charge can cause dangerous sparks.
What are the dangers of static electricity?
A build up of charge can produce sparks which could lead to explosions and fires.
What are some of the danger locations of static electricity?
The danger locations of static electricity are:
- Refuelling aircrafts
- Rolling paper in paper mills
- Grain shoots in grain stores
- Factories
- Power plants
- Storages
In paper mills and grain stores, how are fires and explosions prevented?
Metal rollers are used in paper mills to prevent the build up of electric charge and in grain stories, they use metal shoots. Any charge is conducted away by metal.
How are planes refuelled safely?
Refuelling a plane can cause explosions by the build of charge, this is prevented by joining the delivery tank and the fuel tank with a metal wire.
The metal wire provides a path for the electricity to flow along, thus preventing the build up of potential dangerous charge.
How is static electricity useful on spray-painting cars?
Static electricity is useful for spray painting cars to give it a complete and even coat, without wasting any paint. This is done by charging the car and negatively charging the spray guns. The spray gun paint is attracted to the charged areas of the car.
Explain why rubbing a balloon on your jumper will let you stick it to the wall.
The balloon is an insulator that loses its electrons when rubbed with another insulator. The friction between the two cause this loss and it now becomes a positively charged material that can stick to a wall with some negative charge.
