Ian Greavest age 8. of Ottawa  Canada:

What is static electricity?

Brush your hair on a cold morning. If it isn't a crew cut it may crackle and cling to the brush! Stroke miss puss as she lolls by the fire. You may feel little sparks under your hand. Walk over a thick rug and touch a light switch.; A thrilling little ping may dance right through you. Once in a while you feel one of these sparks as you touch another person. All these surprises are static electricity.

Each is a small barrages a sudden spurt of electricity. Each is a mild discharge of electricity. Static electricity has been known for many thousands of years.  No one knew for ages that it was a clue to the great natural force that lights our homes and runs our machines.

Certain substances are always eager to give off static electricity. The ancient Greeks loved to make amber do these magic tricks. They rubbed the golden glassy stone with fur then they placed it near short bits of straw. The bits of straw flew to the amber and clung there.  They were pulled by that static electricity which makes your hair cling to the brush

Later when thoughtful people got around to studying the magic  they remembered the glassy stone. As Andy told you before the Greek word for amber was elektron so the magic force was named electricity in its honor. However the experts soon found that the magic of electricity was present in everything.. In fact. it is a part of every atom of every substance in the world.  Some things reveal it more easily than others but it is always there.

Strange to say we learned to tame it and put it to work before we knew what it was. Even now we do not understand all about it. But we are pretty sure that electricity is caused by midget particles called electrons. Each atom has its quota of electrons. Each atom is made of tiny particles. The particles are made of two kinds of electricity  positive and negative.

The positive particles  called protons  are welded in the heart of each stomp the nucleus. The negative particles  our electrons are arranged more loosely around the nucleus  Each healthy atom has an equal number of  protons and electrons ~  an equal  amount of positive and negative electricity

Sometimes atoms lose electrons. This can be caused by rubbings by heat  by chemicals or by magnetism. Such atoms become lopsided. They are overloaded with positive electricity. And the loose electrons fly around with overloads of negative electricity. The shorn atoms give off a charge of electricity and so do the lost electrons

This is what happens when you brush your hairs stroke the cat or rub the rug. Electrons come loose and are rubbed off their atoms.. The lopsided atoms try to make up their quota of electrons. The electrons try to find a new atom for a home. The result is a discharge of static electricity.