Chapter 15. Static Electricity
We cannot carry on inspiration and make it consecutive. One day there is no electricity in the air, and the next the world bristles with sparks like a cat's back.—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
Static electricity (static for short) has been blamed for many fires and explosions, sometimes correctly. Sometimes, however, investigators have failed to find any other source of ignition. So they assume that it must have been static even though they are unable to show precisely how a static charge could have been formed and discharged.
A static charge is formed whenever two surfaces are in relative motion, for example, when a liquid flows past the walls of a pipeline, when liquid droplets or solid particles move through ...
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