How does shocking people work

All those big scarves and wool hats really do a number on the frizziness of our hair. The number one factor influencing how many zaps you get is humidity. But to understand why we need to review a bit about electricity. When two objects made of different materials come in contact with each other, like your hair and a hat, for example, electrons can transfer between them. The more prolonged contact, the more electrons move, creating an imbalance of charges between your hair and the hat.

Whether the electrons move from your hair to the hat, or vice-versa, depends on something called the triboelectric series. Some things, like rubber or acrylic, are very likely to gain electrons and become negatively charged.

Whereas other things, like hair, glass or wool, are more likely to lose electrons and become positively charged. In the case of your hair and a wool hat, since human hair is higher on the triboelectric series, the electrons flow from your hair to the toque.

The strands are repelling each other! Why do charges build up in our hair or clothes, but not in other materials? Because insulating materials, like plastic, fabric or glass, will hold charges quite well, while conducting materials, like metals, will not. Water happens to be an excellent conductor, so in the spring, summer and fall, when the air in Canada holds a lot of moisture, any negative charges built up on your body can jump to the air, or vice versa, from the air to your body, either one will result in a shock , whenever they want.

But in the winter, when the air is drier, the charges simply sit on your skin, waiting for you to approach another conductor like your car, a doorknob, or another person to make that leap. When thinking of how wet or dry the air is, we tend to only consider humidity. The dew point is the temperature at which the air is totally saturated with water. When temperatures fall below the dew point, water condenses on solid surfaces, forming dew in the summer, or frost in the winter hence why the dew point can also be called the frost point.

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You touch someone and you get shocked. Everything is made up of atoms—absolutely everything. Atoms have a nucleus with positive particles protons surrounded by other negative particles electrons. If the number of protons and electrons of an atom is the same, the charge is neutral.

However, if two atoms enter into friction, one of them can lose or gain negative charges. The imbalance that is created at that time is static electricity. Those shocks when touching someone are nothing more than a current of electrons passing to an object with a positive charge to re-establish the electrical balance. When this insulating material enters into contact with any other object that has a positive charge, it releases electrons, and this is what causes that dreadful shock.

Some materials with poor electrical connectivity are: wool , nylon, polyester which nearly all carpets are made of , pet fur, and human hair. In addition, it must be taken into account that in the summer there is more static electricity because the air is drier.