Frank Clewer of Warrnambol, Australia was wearing a nylon jacket. He entered the

Question

Frank Clewer of Warrnambol, Australia was wearing a nylon jacket. He entered the lobby of local business. Something happened that ended up with the fire department on the scene. Here is a selection of clips from various newspapers: -He accumulated an estimated of 30,000 volts of static charge simply by his home town in in-advisably large quantities of non-natural tailoring. -This poor guy built up static electricity thanks to an unfortunate combination of insulating clothes that he's wearing static, synthetic clothes, just walking along and he's just building up static charge everywhere. -He was on step shy of spontaneous combustion. His clothes would have self-ignited. -Clewer's jacket , which continues "to give off voltage". PART A : What do you think actually happened here? What could you explain using physics? What could you explain using the newspapers' need for filler material?

Explanation / Answer

this was due to the production of static charge due to the rubbing of nylon and other material of his shirt probabily

Static charges are produced when rubbing two material together and thus the losely bound electron from 1 material get transfered to the other material and thus areating a charge on both of them.Some atoms hold on to their electrons more tightly than others do. How strongly matter holds on to its electrons determines its place in the triboelectric series. If a material is more apt to give up electrons when in contact with another material, it is more positive in the triboelectric series. If a material is more apt to "capture" electrons when in contact with another material, it is more negative in the triboelectric series.

these charges remain static till they get a path for flow and sometimes these charges may be high enouch to give u a shock or start a fire

The following list describes the triboelectric series for many materials you find around the house. Positive items in the series are at the top, and negative items are at the bottom:

Human hands (usually too moist, though) Very positive

Rabbit fur

Glass

Human hair

Nylon.............................................................our case

Wool

Fur

Lead

Silk

Aluminum

Paper

Cotton

Steel Neutral

Wood

Amber

Hard rubber

Nickel, Copper

Brass, Silver

Gold, Platinum

Polyester

Styrene (Styrofoam)

Saran Wrap

Polyurethane

Polyethylene (like Scotch Tape)

Polypropylene

Vinyl (PVC)

Silicon

Teflon Very negative

The relative position of two substances in the triboelectric series tells you how they will act when brought into contact. Glass rubbed by silk causes a charge separation because they are several positions apart in the table. The same applies for amber and wool. The farther the separation in the table, the greater the effect.

sometimes in winter when u walk on the carpet bare footed for a while and then touch the door knob or shake hands with some one else either you or the other oerson feels a shock due to electric current and that is due to the static charges developed.

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