Blog 8: Physics That Will Make Your Hair Stand Up

When my team and I played in a summer volleyball tournament in Reno, we experienced a lot of static electricity. Every time we walked through the lobby and touched a metal surface, we would get shocked. We even got shocked every time we went into our huddle after we shook hands with the other team and during a time out. My friend, Ali, was especially affected by the dry air and the static friction. Her hair would often stand up when we played.

Through the past few chapters we have been learning about, I now understand why we get shocked and how drier conditions cause an electric charge to stay in the air. When we dragged our feet on the lobby carpet or ran around the court, we picked up or released extra electrons to or from the floor. This gave us a positive or negative charge, so in order to become neutral again we gave off or accepted electrons from the next object we touch. This static build up happens even here in Hawaii, but we are more likely to get shocked in a drier place like Reno because Hawaii's air contains a lot of water which doesn't hold as much charge as drier air, without water vapor. Ali's hair stood up because they all became charged through static friction, so each strand repelled each other.