Static Electricity Flashcards
Electricity
Energy transferred by charged particles
Static electricity
- caused by a build up of imbalanced charged particles
- usually on an insulated material because the charge cannot easily flow
Conductor
-Conducts charge well
Insulators
Does not conduct charge well
Static charge
Build up of imbalanced charge on material due to friction
Electric field
- surrounds a charged object
- decides which direction of the force will go when object come close
- I.e attract or repel
Protons
- Positive charge in atoms
- found in nucleus
Electrons
- negative charge in atoms
- found on the outside
Neutrons
- neutral charge in atoms
- found in nucleus
Charge of atoms
No charge
-the charges cancel out leaving them neutral
What happens to the charge when friction occurs
+ why does this not happen to conductors
-only electrons transfer
-this imbalances the charge
+ conductors never have a build up of charge as they flow right back to the original objects
Process of static electricity
- insulating materials rub together, electrons transfer from one object to the other and can’t make their way back
- leaving more protons in one objects and more electrons in the other = they have opposite charges
- the two objects attract each other
What is lightening
- imbalance of charges in the clouds (due to many reasons I.e weather)
- this discharges from the clouds to Earth due to attraction
What is a spark
- when the gap between negative charge and Earths objects is large enough
- the electrons can jump across the gap = producing a spark
Use of static electricity
- laser machines
- photo copiers
- Heart defibrillators
- spray painting cars
- filtering factory smoke
