The Greeks discovered static electricity over 2,600 years ago around 600 BC. They didn’t know they had discovered this, but they noticed that rubbing tree resin with animal fur made the resin attract grass. The main head of this discovery was Thales of Miletus. This topic has been studied for over 500 years and is now used more than ever. In 1660,, Otto Von Guericke invented a machine that demonstrated static electricity. In 1752, Ben Franklin proved that static electricity and lightning were one of the same electricity.
Static electricity is a still electric charge, usually made by friction, that causes sparks, …show more content…
This is known as the triboelectric effect and results in one material becoming positively charged and the other negatively charged. The polarity and strength of the charge on a material once they are separated depends on their relative positions in the triboelectric series. The triboelectric effect is the main cause of static electricity as observed in everyday life. Contact induced charge separation causes your hair to stand up and causes “static cling”. For an example, a balloon rubbed against the hair becomes negatively charged; when near a wall, the charged balloon is attracted to positively charged particles in the wall, and can “cling” to it, appearing to be suspended against