Static ElectricityBy: Omar El-Mousa

Uses

Removing dust: Air purifiers that use static electricity are

used to alter opposite charges to dust so that the dust sticks to the Purifier (plate). Because opposite charges attract each other. For example your chimney is very dusty after a sandstorm and cleaning it regularly would just take to long, so instead using a negatively charged air purifier will simply allow the dust to stick to the plate.

Photocopying: Static is used to attract the ink to were it is

required based on the printing specification. This is because the static uses its charges to apply the ink to the papers. For example you are printing a word document containing text the static charge will go to that area because it goes to the place that the printing needs to be done on.

Motor vehicle painting: Static is used to insure that the car’s paint stays

in place so it is able to resist high speeds. The paint is applied with a static charge. Vehicles are already positively charged so the paint contains a negative charge because as I mentioned before: opposite charges attract each other to stick to one another. For example, if you are accelerating down the highway your paintjob won’t get ruined because it is negatively charged paint will ensure the paint wont fall off because a negative-positive charge bond is stronger than regular paint.

Pollution control: Static charge is used to collect the

dirt/waste/smoke particles by planting static charge on them and then is collected by a device that collects the opposite charge. For example a nuclear power plant explodes, the remaining dust and smoke will be charged with the opposite charge then collected by a negatively/positively charged device.

Smokestacks: Factory employees charge the smoke with

negative/positive static and when it passes through the exit holes; plates that are either positive or negative collect the smoke bases on which charge either contains. The plates could be positively charged and the smoke could be negatively charged or vise versa and the smoke would cling to the plate.

Examples of static electricity:

There are many ways static electricity can be made. The items/tools used to make static electricity are hands, glass, hair, polyvinylchloride plastic, fur or paper. These items product static electricity when rubbed against each other because when the two items are rubbed either one of them gives up electrons to the other because when the occurrence of friction is happening the particles get very tightly packed that they start to just give off electrons.

Problems associated with static electricity in nature or man-made

situations:

Electronic devices: Lots of electronics have conductors in them to keep the electricity flowing throughout the phone. Static can interrupt that flow causing damage to the phone.

Static build up in ignitable material: When ignitable materials are going through

pipes static can build up in them and that would cause an explosion and it has happened in many situations before. E.g. storage tank explosion in Oklahoma, 2003. These explosions happen because most of the fluids (ignitable material) are low conductor so the static can interrupt the flow easily.

Fueling vehicles: When gasoline is flowing through the pipes

going into vehicles, there is vapor present in the pipes. That vapor has a charge either positive or negative. The static discharges the vapor because of the different charges. When the discharge energy from the static is high enough it will ignite the fuel causing an explosion. Although different fuels have different ignition limits. All the fuels require different discharge energies for the fuels to be capable of ignition.

Space operations: Since there is very low humidity in space the

vapor can easily be discharged by the static. This will also cause all the complex electrical gadgets to cease operation.

Ozone cracking: My rubber materials are sensitive to Ozone

cracking. Exposure to Oxygen or air that is discharged with static can create the Ozone effect, which damages rubber materials such as tires.

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