• Question: How do you give someone a static shock?

    Asked by sbrazlil1 to Jo, Leo on 25 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Leo Garcia

      Leo Garcia answered on 25 Jun 2010:

      You can give someone a static shock by building up an electric charge on your clothes – perhaps by rubbing your socks on a woolly carpet. This strips the material in the socks of electrons, giving you a net charge. So long as there is electric contact between your socks and you – you should be able to shock someone!

      Static electricity is a really interesting physics phenomenon, and understanding it helps to understand things like lightning:

      http://scifiles.larc.nasa.gov/text/kids/Problem_Board/problems/electricity/static2.html

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