Door handles, taps, playground slides, furry pets… Getting zapped by static electricity is a common experience. But the physics that causes the spark is surprisingly intricate.

MINNEAPOLIS — When someone touches something and gets shocked, it's awkward and a bit painful. What causes static electricity? And what actually happens when you get shocked? Visitors of the ...

What is static electricity and what causes it? Static electricity is created when there’s an imbalance of negative and positive charges that build up on an object.

Jan. 9 is National Static Electricity Day. All things in the universe are made up of atoms. These atoms have a positive charge in their center, or nucleus, and negative charged particles, called ...

What is static electricity (SE) and how is it associated with indoor conditions? SE is a form of potential energy, which is different from the kinetic energy of flowing electrical currents.

It's that time of year, at least where I'm currently at, where static electricity becomes an issue and I have to pay attention to it. Without a humidifier, the indoor humidity levels crater into ...

Rubbing two balloons together leads George to a shocking discovery. If you rub two identical balloons together, they both pick up a static charge. This strange and unexpected behavior has been ...

An invention made from waste polystyrene that generates static electricity from motion and wind could lower power usage by recycling waste energy in air conditioners and other applications. More ...

New research shows that ticks can use static electricity to latch onto people or animals. The study in the journal Current Biology says the static charge given off by potential hosts can attract ...

Construction, design and architecture teams are working together to lower the amount of static electricity visitors are experiencing on the Minnesota Zoo’s Treetop Trail. The 1.25-mile-long ...

Another day, another zap. Understanding the physics of static electricity can help you not get static shocks quite so often.