National Static Electricity Day is celebrated every year on January 9th.
Static electricity is defined by Library of Congress as “an imbalance between negative and positive charges in objects.” This type of reaction can occur to any of us because we can see, feel, and hear its reaction. Static electricity is harmless and can occur in more than just one form of static shock, such as rubbing a balloon against your clothes and sticking it on the walls or even on your hair to make your hair raise.
The first person to speak about static electricity was Thales of Miletus, a Greek philosopher, when he noticed dust was sticking to his ambers after he rubbed them; but it wasn’t until many years later that the term “electricity” was established, and that’s when humankind started to understand and research more about the concept of static electricity. Now, National Static Electricity Day is celebrated because it has become an essential aspect of and shaped our everyday lives in many positive ways. For example, thanks to static electricity and electric engineering developments, factories’ air pollution can be managed.
Here are some fun facts about static electricity:
- Lightning is known to be a form of static electricity due to electric charge exchange between clouds;
- Static electricity could be the future source to solve our energy problems; and
- Photocopy machines use static electricity to place ink on paper.
If you want to learn more about science and static electricity, please visit: https://www.sciencemadesimple.com/static.html
