Examples of static electricity

• Walking along a carpet and having built up static charge, when touching a metal doorknob which is connected to the earth, electrons on the body will be transferred to the doorknob
• When rubbing a balloon against your hair, electrons are transferred from the hair to the balloon, making the oppositely attracting objects stick to eachother
• When a negatively charged object is bought near a neutral wall, the protons in the wall are drawn to the surface and the electrons are pushed back, as the protons are attracted to the negative charge
• The Van De Graaff device is a metal ball with a rubber belt. When the belt is turned, the belt becomes negatively charged and the ball becomes positively charged. Touching the ball will cause a shock