That's probably a good idea. Yesterday at work, I was on
the phone and stood up which caused a spark to go right through
the plastic of the hand set in to my thumb. It was a really good
spark, the kind that adds a little ache to the sting. The phone
still kept working but that was quite a wallup. We think of
non-metallic substances like glass, plastic and air as
non-conductive and that is quite true until you reach a voltage
that is called the dielectric constant. That varies with
whatever substance is separating you from the juice, but it is
usually really high. When you reach that potential, the
electricity goes through and you get a spark. That is what
lightning is. The voltage between the ground and clouds goes up
in to the hundreds of millions of volts and finally, the air,
itself breaks down and conducts during the lightning strike. The
only difference between lightning and thunder and the snaps you
hear when taking off a sweater is magnitude.
There's today's science lesson.
Martin
"Melissa Wobschall" writes:
> Yes, there is a lot of static and dry air around here, too. I've had to
> give up listening to my MP3 player because, when I take out the laundry,
> it
> discharges static and stings my ears and I can hear it popping in my ears.
> No thank you. I don't want to damage the player, even if the story is
> good.
>
> Mel
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected]
> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Martin G. McCormick
> Sent: Monday, January 20, 2014 4:17 PM
> To: Just Chat; Where Anything Goes ... Almost!
> Subject: Re: No rain
>
> That is fairly typical for Oklahoma between roughly November and March. Of
> course, typical weather for Oklahoma covers a huge range with the word
> "too"
> preceeding most of the descriptors. It goes from too windy to too cold,
> sometimes too rainy and occasionally even too warm because you don't want
> it
> to get warm in Winter which is sometimes a problem in February and March.
> The trees start to bud out and you can almost count on a killing freeze to
> end the warm spell. Fruit trees won't produce a crop that year if that
> happens.
>
> We are off for the Martin Luther King holiday today and at 3
> O'clock
> in the afternoon, it is 64.4 degrees F or 18 C. The Sun is out and it is a
> beautiful day with a typical Oklahoma wind of 13 gusting to 26. You really
> couldn't ask for a nicer day in late January.
>
> The humidity is 24% and one thing you probably notice when it is
> this dry is static electricity. I bet you didn't know that most of those
> sparks that jump from your finger to metal objects represent voltages of 5
> to 20-thousand volts. While the discharge is not directly dangerous to our
> bodies, it can destroy electronic equipment or sometimes temporarily
> scramble the circuitry so that it does weird things. Worse than that,
> people
> have actually had gasoline pumps explode as they filled up their tanks.
> You
> sometimes get a really good charge built up from sliding off the seat and
> getting out of the car. There have been a few very rare cases across the
> country of a spark jumping from the hand of someone filling up their tank
> in
> to the nozzle and touching off the gas. It is not pretty.
>
> Our dog will wallow around on her back on a rug and if I put my
> hand
> on her chest or stomach, a continuous stream of sparks pop away. They kind
> of sting but I guess they don't bother her because she doesn't seem to
> notice.
>
> Oh well, enough static from me for now.
>
> Martin
>
>
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