Static Electricity

In my opinion, the three most important things we learned about static electricity were…conduction through friction

1.Conduction through friction

I found it very interesting and important to learn the science behind why we can zap ourselves on a doorknob. Also, the fact that it is only the electrons that move was something that I didn’t know and is very interesting.

2.Nucleus, proton, and electron are not the same size

I had no idea that there was a difference in size between the nucleus, proton, and electron. I guess now that I’m thinking about it, it makes sense but what really interests me is how an electron and a proton are different sizes but produce opposite charges. Overall, I think that this is a very important and cool part of static electricity.

3.Electrons are the only thing that moves in an atom

Honestly, I did not know that electrons were the only parts of the atom that transfer themselves to other atoms. I found this an extremely important and interesting thing to know about this unit. Also, considering that without the electrons moving, there would be no static electricity in the first place, it is a paramount part of the unit.

The most important/ informative lesson of the unit for me was…

I think that the experiment that we conducted when we tried to find out how strong the connection between two objects was after rubbing them was the most informative. I don’t know about the rest of the class but it gave me a good solid platform for the understanding of static electricity and how it worked.

Another cool part about was that we could see what kind of materials create the most charge and we were able to learn the difference between conductors and insulators.

All in all, this entire unit was very interesting and filled with important information. I enjoyed it very much and am excited for the next unit.