Seemingly random charging of identical materials depends on the carbonaceous molecules stuck to their surfaces ...

When microscopic particles of sand, ash, or dust collide in the air, they often exchange a tiny electrical charge. This tiny ...

If you’ve ever felt a shock after rubbing your hair with a balloon or shuffling across a carpet, you’ll know that static ...

There’s a shocking lack of understanding of the physics underlying this commonplace phenomenon, but researchers are on the ...

Static electricity often just seems like an everyday annoyance when a wool sweater crackles as you pull it off, or when a doorknob delivers an unexpected zap. Regardless, the phenomenon is much more ...

As humans we often think we have a pretty good handle on the basics of the way the world works, from an intuition about gravity good enough to let us walk around, play baseball, and land spacecraft on ...