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Radio Show & Podcast Feedback / Static on car
« on: 21/07/2006 06:20:25 »
I download your archived podcasts and listen to them on my 100 minute commute to work every day. In one show, you incorrectly explained why one gets shocked when touching the car door. You explained that it is the air passing over the car that generates the static electricity.
Instead, it is your pants rubbing on the car's seat when you slide out that causes the static which generates the spark.
The dilemma is easy to solve. If you put your hand on the metallic part of the door as you slide out of the car, you do not get shocked once you are out of the car. This would only be true if the static electricity resides on you. It would not be true if the static resided on the car; you would still get shocked. It is a great way to prevent getting zapped. If you are touching metal as you slide out, the static electricity slowly leaks out of your hand and never builds up high enough to hurt you. Try it next time the weather is right and you'll be happy to see that you do not get shocked.
Also, if it were going from the car, through you, and into the ground, you would feel it coming out of your toes. You do not. Instead, it is going from you to the car and your toes are not involved.
Question: How do Betta fish (aka Japanese fighting fish)survive in a tiny fish bowl with no air circulation, no filter, and only a couple of tiny grains of food per day? These creatures are amazing.
Again, great show and thanks.
Mike Horton
Orange County, California, USA
Instead, it is your pants rubbing on the car's seat when you slide out that causes the static which generates the spark.
The dilemma is easy to solve. If you put your hand on the metallic part of the door as you slide out of the car, you do not get shocked once you are out of the car. This would only be true if the static electricity resides on you. It would not be true if the static resided on the car; you would still get shocked. It is a great way to prevent getting zapped. If you are touching metal as you slide out, the static electricity slowly leaks out of your hand and never builds up high enough to hurt you. Try it next time the weather is right and you'll be happy to see that you do not get shocked.
Also, if it were going from the car, through you, and into the ground, you would feel it coming out of your toes. You do not. Instead, it is going from you to the car and your toes are not involved.
Question: How do Betta fish (aka Japanese fighting fish)survive in a tiny fish bowl with no air circulation, no filter, and only a couple of tiny grains of food per day? These creatures are amazing.
Again, great show and thanks.
Mike Horton
Orange County, California, USA