ShmoopTube

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And here's your shmoop du jour brought to you by static

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electricity causing pain to feet shufflers around the world..The thousand [man stubs little toe on bed and screams]

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foot tall Sky Tower in New Zealand has a glass floor with a clear view of the

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ground below Kate walks across the glass floor in rubber soled shoes causing [Kate walking across glass floor]

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static charge to build up on the shoes and floor the site makes Kate a little

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dizzy and she reaches for the metal frame for support shocking herself with [Kate touches metal frame and shocks herself]

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static electricity..Which of the following statements is true select two

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answers and here are our options.. Okay well terrifying heights and electric shocks [Man hanging on to skyscraper and is electrocuted]

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this is not our idea of fun at a tourist attraction.. If we ever visit New Zealand and

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we'll just stick to hanging out with the hobbits.. Just in case high time scary [Hobbit being photographed by people]

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enough though another fun feature about tall buildings is that they get struck

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by lightning that happens a lot with tall things after all which is why our [man struck by lightning on a mountain]

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friend stretch doesn't go mountain climbing anymore. Though architects

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need to protect people in their buildings from getting zapped...One way they do that is [Man insulating a loft]

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by keeping the building insulated against electricity well glass is a

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great electric insulator and rubber is too so one of our correct answers is A..

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Another way they protect against lightning bolts is by providing the [Lightning strikes the Thousand Foot skyscraper in New Zealand]

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electricity a way to get down to the ground safely if it hits the building

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that can be done with a lightning rod which is attached to wires running down [Lightning travelling down the rod to the ground]

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to the ground allowing the electricity to pass through the outside of the

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structure after all lightning happens when rain clouds generate an electric

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charge by running into each other just like with Kate walking in the Sky [Clouds hitting each other and Kate walking over the Sky Tower]

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Tower.. The negative charge in the cloud seeks a balance and this happens when an

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electricity is discharged to the ground that huge burst of charge helps bring

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the clouds charge closer to neutral well that's what happens with Kate she builds

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up a negative charge and by touching the metal frame of the building the [Kate with a negative charge touching the metal frame]

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electrons jump off of her bringing her charge back to neutral and the static

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electricity runs down the support to the ground which means C is our other

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correct answer and that also means that D is wrong she's getting back to a

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neutral charge not gaining a negative charge

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and B is wrong because there's no such thing as a charge of 3.5 e.. E is the

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elementary charge which means that it can't get any smaller 3.58e isn't [Two students holding the letter E]

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possible and a possible answer well yeah that's definitely wrong so be careful

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next time you go walking on a glass floor and if you do happen to pick up

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static electricity make sure to zap a friend or family member it's just more [Kate touches her friend to give off static electricity]

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fun to share the pain.

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