A student who grew up in a tropical country and is studying in the United States may have no experience with static electricity sparcs and shocks until his or her first American winter. Why is that so?

Question

anonymous · Answer

because in humid air, any small excess charge build (from friction or whatever) is 'pulled off' by water molecules.

lgbasallote · Answer

will you elaborate in layman's terms?

anonymous · Answer

those are layman's terms.  rub a balloon on the cat in el salvador and the plentiful water molecules neutralize the charge you've built up on the cat and balloon.

anonymous · Answer

any small excess charge built*

lgbasallote · Answer

humid air means hot air right?

anonymous · Answer

no. it means full of water vapor.

lgbasallote · Answer

oh...

lgbasallote · Answer

so how does that produce electricity?

anonymous · Answer

it doesn't.  it neutralizes excess charge.

lgbasallote · Answer

so if the student has excess charge, the water pulls that charge away and it produces shock?

anonymous · Answer

static sparks, or whatever you want to call them, are the result of rubbing the balloon on the cat...  you build up a charge difference between the cat and balloon... if it's large enough there will be an arc of current between the two as the charge goes back to its previous spots.

anonymous · Answer

doesn't usually happen in the balloon/cat example, because they're in contact the whole time, so it happens on small, close scales... but if you walk across carpet in rubber shoes, the charge builds up on you.  then you touch something that's grounded or a conductor, and the charge rushes across the gap.  that's the spark.  in humid air the charge gets effectively neutralized before that build up ever gets large.