The most important things we have learned about static:
- Why certain materials attract or repel each other. Like charges repel each other (e.g. negative and negative), opposite charges attract (e.g. negative and positive), and neutral objects attract charged objects (e.g. neutral and positive). This is important to know because they are the basic laws of electric charge, so we need to know this in order to understand why certain materials attract or repel each other.
- Which materials are conductors of electricity, and which are insulators. We learned that certain materials such as copper, aluminium, and many other metals are good conductors of electricity, and heat. Some insulators are foam, rubber, plastic, glass. This is important because we even use this information in our daily lives, like not leaving a metal spoon in a hot frying pan and then grabbing it, because you would burn yourself.
- How objects can become charged, e.g. friction, conduction, and induction. Conduction is an object becoming charged by touching another charged object. Friction is getting a charge by an object rubbing against another object. Induction is getting a charge by an object being close to a charged object. This is important to know because you can charge an object this way, or be aware of an object getting a charge this way
The lab most helpful in understanding static:
The static discovery lab, because it helped me understand how to charge an object and why certain objects attracted or repelled each other because of whether they had a positive, negative, or neutral charge. It also helped me understand that certain combinations of materials work better than others to create a charge.