When I lived in Denver, which is pretty dry, I was CONSTANTLY getting shocked by anything metal. I'd developed a fear of touching anything metal for years afterward.
When I was a kid, my best friend and I used to have static shock wars at music class. The carpet and metal chairs were perfect to keep our highly charged battle going. Sometimes we would call a truce and zap other kids instead. The teacher was shocked at our behavior.
What use did the metal chairs had in your electric battle? Because your body is charging up, when you rub your socks on the carpet. Cave you tried to charge the whole cair?
A good trick to avoid painful shocks if you think you might have static is to first touch the metal with your knuckle. It's way less sensitive than your fingertips, trust me.
A simple way to prevent a shock is to "ground" the charge just by touching floor or a nearby wall. That will get rid of the charge without a shock. Done it many times.
UGHHHHH, I hate it. In school, when I open my locker, I have to use my winter coat to touch it, and everyone stares at me ;-; For some reason, everyone else rarely has any shocks, while I get around 10 to 20 shocks daily ;-;
I feel like the people who hate it(you) get it A LOT. But the people who like it(me) get it rarely.Ik I am weird. I just love the feeling. IDK why? Lol
Lightning physicist here: You're mostly right but I want to add some details. There are two main cloud particles involved, ice pellets and graupels, or "soft hail" (opaque ice rime that accumulates on snowflakes, forming 2-5mm balls). The rate at which they accumulate mass seems to determine which charge positive and which charge negative when they collide, and the accumulation depends temperature and other atmospheric factors. Usually the graupels charge negative and the strong updrafts hold them pretty much stationary in the lower portion of the cloud. The lighter ice pellets are then lifted up near the top of the cloud. The lower positive region you mentioned is present in all thunderclouds and it is not a mystery, it's a result of discontinues conductivity going from the cloud to the open air below it. It's essentially a "reflection" of the main negative charge region. An upper negative region forms at the top of the cloud for the same reason. Some people discuss alternative charge formations, but my boss and most of the professors at my school believe all formations are the same, the amount of charge in each layer just varies so they can appear differently, especially with flawed methodology in measuring the charge. And my school has the largest collection of lightning physicists anywhere in the world so their opinion carries some weight. Only like 20 or so people in the world actively study the physics of lightning though, so you did pretty well getting the details you did.
I just saw a news article about lightning research that used a radio telescope array in the Netherlands to track how lightning begins and propagates in storm clouds. So cool!
@@O.LEO.N if I’m correct, I’d bet this young lady felt very proud of her knowledge and content after someone with such clout and experience affirmed her. She likely learned and appreciated the added info and even the corrections. Most professionals at this level who are willing to put themselves out there aren’t going to take it personally. I didn’t ask this professor but I really enjoyed the deeper information. Take care!
The fact that you’ve become this knowledgeable on the subject and so proficient in educating on it is almost as fascinating as the mystery itself! I’d bet most above average intelligence people can’t retain enough scientific knowledge to reach a good understanding of electrical charges and their properties and effects. Thanks for sharing.
Since my teenage years until now, I avoid stainless handles. Last night was different. I saw long sparks on my shirt and that crackling sounds, it was fun.
Tip: If there is any live vegetation nearby, touch a leaf to get rid of those electrons. The shock seems only half as bad as touching metal in my experience.
To avoid getting zapped when leaving the car, just hold onto the side of the car and put your foot on the ground and get out. This way you won't get a shock when closing the door.
One thing I did not see mentioned here which I figured out just by doing it, is to touch another surface before you go for the door handle. For example I will put one hand on the door itself or the frame, then touch the handle with the other hand after, while still keeping my opposite hand touching the door/frame. It either makes the charge so small/spread out that I don't feel it/notice it, or it just gets rid of it before hand i believe. Not 100% why it works, but its much easier than walking weird or changing the kind of clothes you wear.
I slam my fist at my locker and it doesn’t shock me
3 года назад
-Touch a wall or floor before touching anything metal to discharge yourself. -Change your shoes to others with a sole not made of rubber (leather for example)
Don’t you have to touch a coin or screw to discharge? Why would a wall work?
3 года назад
@@itsrebelgee walls and floors have enough mass to absorb your charge. Every time I walk away from my chair, if I have shoes on, I know I will be shocked by door knobs. But if I touch a wall before, I know I'm safe. Sometimes I can even hear a slight sound of the discharge to the wall when I do this.
Ffs I was getting shocked by my blanket and it was lightening up with a spark of light everytime while "clicking" but the shock itself didnt hurt. I felt like a wizard but now Im kind of scared and need to dump this away from me. I dont want to cause a fire..
The positive bottoms of clouds may be a result of electrostatic induction. In "normal" clouds, the negative bottom forces the ground to become more positive, as the electrons are repelled by the negatively charged clouds. This "negative ground charge" must go somewhere. Thus, on rare occasions, a large amount of negative ground charge may gather, being "corralled" by the surrounding "Normal clouds". Now that the ground has a negative charge, it could induce a charge in a cloud above it. This could result in an inversion of the normal orientation, and leave a positively charged bottom above a negatively charged ground. I think it's an elegant solution, for a first try. I could be wrong, but I might be right.
I get shocked by the dryer to the point of visible lightning between my finger and the dryer. I've learned to apply a ton of moisturiser to my hands and use a damp cloth to take things out of the dryer.
I'm not sure if there is any coordination but every single door at my job shocks me and it always happens after I tap my badge to unlock a door. I get zapped anywhere from 30-50 times a day depending on how often I leave my patients. I start as a Nurse Admin on the 23rd and I can honestly tell you that I'm more nervous of the fact that I will enter a new room almost every minute than anything genuinely job related.
i remember in highschool, our folding plastic bleachers built up a big charge fast and when you touched someone, you could see the lighting bolt and it hurt a lot more than if you were to just get zapped on a door nob
My computer table used to be made of metal. I remember being a teenager and receiving a shock everytime i'd sit at the computer. I even rebooted the computer once with a shock
try this: if you change your cloth and pull your pullover over your head, do it in the dark and open your eyes. you will see many sparkles like little lightnings.
Perhaps do a SciShow video why it is important to KEEP the short silent spaces between paragraphs. Editing them out makes the audience very tired listening to a bombardment of facts, with no short pauses to help with absorption.
My friends call me ''Electro'' for this reason. I am here to seek answers. I don't touch metallic objects after working out. I often hear electric sounds when I'm taking off my clothes.
Yeah, I used to have a blanket that crackle and pop with visible bolts of static electricity whenever you removed from my bed. Once it was so bad that somehow it caused my ceiling light to go out. I don't know if that was a coincidence but it hasn't turned back on to this day almost a decade later. I'm sure we could fix it, but well... who doesn't love a good story.
I’ve read the comments, and see that there are some with DIFFERENT POTENTIALS for solutions, but a good GROUNDING in basic electrical science will be needed to solve this.
Moisturizing your hands and body, with lotion, works wonders,! But, mixing 50/50 downy liquid laundry softener or similar with water, and spray the mixture, to your clothing, bedding, fabric car seats, will take the ZAP, out of your day! You’re welcome! Aloha808
I use to get a lot of shock and many time i use to avoid touching things (mobile, laptop, People, metallic ). Sometime it look funny as well when you touch sometime and get a shock people nearby would notice you acting weird for no reason ( it is hard to explain other exactly what has happen ).
a simple trick to avoid getting shocked is to just exit your house through the chimney during the winter, your neighbors may stare but you are the pain free genius.
QQ: Why most objects that are moved closer to a light source, like a projector, cast a bigger shadow, but some don't like if the moon was brought closer to the sun.
I can relate to the humidity statement because when I used to live in a tropical place I wouldnt get shocked that much but once I moved to Nevada, a place with almost no humidity I get shocked everyday a few times so it could be that then lol
you know what? i'm just gonna start wearing a thimble at all times, don't know if winter is extra dry this year or if it's my shoes but i'm getting zapped constantly these days
I know the rolling of my office chair and using my car are the two actions that build up the most charge, so I found places to touch my upper arm that will ground my charge.
For the past month I’ve been getting zapped by everything! My metal bed frame, my iPod, my PS4... The bed frame hurt the most. 😢 But it’s been super cold here, so I guess that’s why this is happening.
Why would you want to stop a few thousands of volts hitting you in just one millionths of a second (or a static electricity shock ) . what's bad about it?
My college Physics professor once told us the secret to making static shocks not so bad was to touch metal objects in winter with the knuckles on your hand first, as there are far fewer nerve endings there to register pain. I still use this tip today.
Smart!!! It will keep you safer to always touch anything suspicious of electricity this way. For example if you ever accidentally touch something with an electric short out and it’s small enough for your hand to grip… If the charge is strong enough your hand will grip it involuntarily and you’ll be stuck there! This happened to my poor sis on an electric wire fence when we went to go see some horses. We were just tiny girls. Thank God someone was smart enough to run out in his big old rubber boots with a giant wire cutter or my sister may not be alive today because she could not let go and anyone who tried to touch her got zapped real bad. I was inly 5 yrs old but I remember him running out and screaming “don’t pull on her! Stop pulling on her! You’re going to pull her fingers off!” I wish I could think that man for saving my sister.
One I always love about this channel is the science behind it, sometimes there isn't an answer but more information that raises more questions, or answers that prove fruitless, but it's always still new information to get the theory closer to the truth
That sounds terrible. I love in Louisiana so it's hot and humid and shock doesn't exist except for the few dry, cold days a year when I get lit up every ten seconds
0:24 I feel this pain when I touch a laptop, sometimes doorknobs, my BED, my chargers, my desk and more but I knew about the first and third thing they talked about
I work for General Mills and sometimes we have to drain the product (cake mix) out of the mixers. 20-30,000lbs. We use clear plastic tubes similar to garbage bag material. Every once in a while a spark easily 2+ feet long will jump out. I got a few of them too and let me tell you.
I still don't know what this girl's name is, but I just wanted to say she's come a long way since she started on scishow. She seems way more comfortable and animated while talking and it makes for much better viewing. Good work!
I work in an environment where I do a lot of walking in a building. I carry keys and I all ways discharge in a door handle with a key, sometimes I am so charged that I can literally see the tiny bolt between key and surface of handle.
Same when i lived in tropical country in asia never had but when i moved to az, im afraid again to touch any metal instantly bcs of electric shock several times a day, i would have any fabric on my hand b4 touching metals some ppl think it weird hopefully they know to feel being grounded all the time.. :(
When I listen to music in the winter I get shocked through my ears. The best part is, the iPhone 7 headphone dongle increases the capacitance, making the shocks worse. THANKS TIM.
I just saw a news article about lightning research that used a radio telescope array in the Netherlands to track how lightning begins and propagates in storm clouds. So cool!
I always get a shock whenever I get out of my car. It will happen when I am out of the car standing on the ground and I touch the edge of the door to close it. I usually drive but it only happens when I get out of the Driver's seat. It doesn't matter what I'm wearing: shorts, jeans, sweat pants; t-shirt, cotton shirt, polyester shirt; jacket, no jacket. I also thought that it had something to do with my car; the way I get into or out of the seat, materials i rub against in the car, or even a grounding problem, but it started when I had my 2006 black honda civic. I drove that for a few years, then I bought my 2014 light blue subaru outback. I still get shocked in the same way with my new car. I've got into the habit of touching the car door with my shoulder as i get out to dissipate the shock through clothing so it's less intense. Anyone have any thoughts or experience the same thing?
We built a second story deck using TEAK which is like a plastic + wood mix for floor boards. Without fail we'd get zapped every time coming back in from the outside. Is there a way to ground the second story deck somehow so this doesn't happen? TIA
No, because the key acts as an intermediate conductor. The spark is a result of a difference in electrons in your body (typically from wearing certain materials in colder weather and rubbing back and forth as you sit and drive; the charge accumulates on your body) and the car having a different level of "electron charge" but, the car is insulated from Ground (neutral) by the rubber in its tires. So, you have an abundance of electrons (- - - ) and the car has a deficit of electrons (+ + + ) and as you get out of the car, touching only the plastic armrest or door handle, your charge remains high. When your hand touches the metal door handle, ZAP!! The electron charges balance. Or if a metal car key touching your hand, then touches a metal door lock, ZAP!! The charges balance. If the spark happens at the tip of the car key, of course you would not feel it. Your nerve endings are in your finger tips and the gap between finger and key is pretty much nil. Problem now is, so many car surfaces are not metallic, but plastic, resin, heavily painted (with paint as an insulating material) that people do not feel these sparks anymore. Much. It is the stuff I recall happening 20, 25, 30 or more years ago, and not so much in 2020. (Described here for posterity.)
