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 ...

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

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

A growing body of research is shifting how scientists explain static electricity, pointing to surface contamination and contact history rather than the inherent properties of materials as the primary ...

The familiar phenomenon has puzzled researchers for centuries, but experiments are finally making sense of its unruly behaviours.

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Researchers have demonstrated a particulate static effect-induced electricity generation technology inspired by the Tesla turbine.

Scientists at Northwestern University may have figured out why walking on carpet in your socks, petting your furry friend, or rubbing a balloon on your hair creates static electricity. In a new study, ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. There's a reason you may notice it more in the winter. Excess static electricity is always a shock to the system—literally—but if ...

Static electricity shocks are more common in the winter because of the season's dry air. Friction between materials, like socks on carpet, builds up a static charge in low humidity. Using a humidifier ...

Okay, not actually a cyclotron… but this ball cyclotron is a good model for what a cyclotron does and the concepts behind it feel kooky and magical. A pair of Ping Pong balls scream around a glass ...

A stream of compressed air does not look like a power source. In factories, it usually hisses through pipes, drives tools, then disappears as waste. But under the right conditions, that same airflow ...