What is "static electricity"?

What is "static electricity"?

Professor Gizmo (Amazing Science Presentations) gives expert video advice on: How do we make sounds that are both high and low?; How do my eyes play tricks on me?; What is the difference between a solid, a liquid and a gas? and more...

Static electricity; that's a fun one. I'm positive everybody has done this; where you've run across the carpeting, and you're shuffling your feet real fast, and then you go up to a doorknob and you touch it and you get this spark. Well, what's happening is when you're rubbing across the floor, you're picking up electrons. Then, when you get to the doorknob and you reach out, the electrons jump from you to the doorknob. Well, there are lots of things that can show that. In fact, if you take a balloon and you rub it on your hair, and then you stick it to a wall, it'll stick there. Now, this is a nice demonstration, and you only need three things to make this work. You need a PVC pipe, you need rabbit fur, and this is a styrofoam ring, which is basically material that's used for packing things such as DVDs or whatever. I cut the styrofoam into a long strip and taped it together to make a hoop. Now, to make this work, we simply are going to take the rabbit fur, and we're going to put a charge on the styrofoam ring, and then we're going to put the same charge onto the PVC pipe. Same charges will repel each other. So when I rub this way, I'm adding a charge to the styrofoam ring, and now I'm going to add a charge to the PVC pipe. They're both the same charge, so they should repel each other [Professor Gizmo picks up the styrofoam ring with the PVC pipe and lifts it into the air; the styrofoam ring starts floating about the pipe as it repels)...and they do. Look at that. So, they're both like charges, and they are repelling each other. So, when I put the stick under there, it's trying to get away from me!