by Michael Skinner

Created on: November 08, 2009   Last Updated: March 05, 2010

35 people died in a huge fireball on 6 May 1937. The freak accident destroyed an entire mode of transportation. It was the Hindenburg disaster and some think it was caused by a build up of static electricity.

On Feb 7, 2008 a disastrous explosion in a sugar mill blew up three silos and covered the destroyed factory with shredded metal that looked like confetti. As farmers and engineers now know, whenever you have a huge amount of a powdered substance in an enclosed space, the risk of a spark and an explosion is great. What would cause such a spark? Static electricity.

Given the horrendous consequences of having stray bits of electricity where they don't belong, understanding and controlling static electricity has been one of the more important issues in many industries. The computer you are using right now for instance could lose its mind if static electricity suddenly appeared in the wrong place. In some electronics manufacturing facilities people have to be careful about what they wear when they are working so as not to cause static electricity to build up and destroy the computer chips.

In nature two electrical sources of charge are found. Negative and positive. In the realm of the physics lab and scientific theory the tiny electron is the source of the negative charge and the huge proton is the source of positive charges.

In chemistry labs and the real world, protons are too heavy and too cumbersome to move easily. Moreover, the protons huddle together with neutrons in the nucleus of an atom and are bound together by something called the strong force. The strong force is much stronger than the force of electricity. In general, in non radioactive materials, it takes something like a nuclear bomb to pry loose a proton. So what we know of as positive charge is not caused by the presence or absence of protons. Rather it is the electrons that have all the credit cards. Only the electrons get to "charge it."

In physics and chemistry the Holy Grail is equilibrium. Given a free choice, the universe prefers to while away the hours doing nothing. For electricity this state of doing nothing is seen when the number of electrons exactly balances the number of protons. If you remove some electrons, the positive charge of the protons will be unshielded and you will see them. Under certain circumstances, you can temporarily get a neutral substance to hold some extra electrons. When this happens we say the substance is negatively charged.

In some compounds and chemicals

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