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The lamp shocks me, feels like this always happens.

Does this ever happened to you, too?

I wonder why I think I know somebody who can help us figure this out Hi, welcome to Alabama, STEM Explorers.

I'm Sophia, and I'm here with Neil at the Hudson Alpha Institute for Biotechnology in Huntsville, Alabama.

I was just telling him about how I keep on getting shocked and it's really frustrating.

So, Sophia, it sounds like you were a victim of static electricity.

So, so let's talk about what actually might have happened.

So.

So tell me just before you got shocked, what were you doing?

Well, I was really tired, so I walked to the couch I took off my jacket, I sat down.

I may have combed through my hair a little bit, fluffing up this mane, and then I tried to turn on the lamp and I got shocked.

OK?

Shockingly enough, shocking.

So you actually all those things you created a whole set of negative charges on your body.

And we'll talk about what that actually means.

But when you went to go touch the lamp, all those negative charges jumped from your hand to that lamp chain.

And that created that spark.

That static electricity that shock you at home probably have had that same kind of sensation.

Maybe you've pulled on or pulled off a sweater or or you've taken a hat off on a cold winter day and then you touch the light switch, or maybe a pet and you got shocked.

Static electricity is an imbalance of electrical charges for example, grabbing two of those balloons.

All right.

So if we rub the balloons along our clothes, what we're actually doing is we are building up static charg and if we let go, it should stick.

Well, maybe a little it should stick.

So the balloon actually sticks to our clothes because of the static electricity.

Let's do a different example.

Maybe you and I aren't generating much static right now.

Let's take a soda can.

OK?

And you and I each have a plastic PVC pipe.

You're going to.

We're going to charge it.

We're going to add negative charge.

You've got that like you said, that hair.

Charge it by running it along your hair.

There's not much mane here at all.

So I'm going to use a scarf.

All right, now, I'm going to take this metal card and I'm going to lay it down, OK, and I'm going to bring mine really close to it.

Now you do yours, do you bring yours really close You're pulling it in the other direction.

It looks like tug of war, tug of war.

Well, come on, come on, come on board one.

My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my.

It looks like magic.

Sophia, as we talk about static electricity, we need to actually talk about atoms and what atoms are and charges.

All physical objects are made of atoms.

And I've got a model here.

There's a handmade, homemade Model DIY.

That's right, it looks a little bit like some sad kind of Christmas tree ornaments like it.

But each of these are atoms and you take this atom and let's talk about what is in this atom.

first of all, so all living things, all physical things, not just living, things are made of atoms.

This table, Sofia and I are close.

The air contains atoms of different, different components and atoms have three key parts to them protons, neutrons and electrons And we've got them colored in different ways here in the center, called the nucleus are the protons, and we've got the protons in gold.

And we also contain the neutrons in brown.

They're very tightly clustered together, and the protons and neutrons are what give this atom its specific identity.

Maybe that's carbon.

Or maybe that's oxygen.

Or maybe that's lead or gold.

It's the number of protons and neutrons in the center of the atom that makes that important.

Now let's talk about the electrons around the outside.

So they kind of operate in spheres.

They move around.

They aren't as tightly held as the protons and neutrons.

And in this particular one, we've got five different electrons.

Now each of these molecules has some sort of charge.

Protons have a positive charge.

Neutrons are neutral.

They don't have a charge.

And electrons carry a negative charge and generally typically the proton positive and the electron negative balance each other out.

Sofia Let's take a second atom, and let's compare.

Now we know that this atom is something different than yours because we can see it has a different number of protons and neutrons in its nucleus.

When these two atoms interact with each other, maybe like the way when we rub the balloon across our clothing or you rub the PVC pipe in your hair, what actually happens is we're transferring electrons so we're taking the electron off one and we're adding it to the other atom.

But that doesn't change what the atom.

That's right, because we transfer electrons, the atom is still the same.

That's still, for example, that would still be carbon and this would still be led.

For example, if that's what it was, the electrons change, but the actual material itself doesn't.

So the only thing different is the charge.

The only thing different is the charge.

So what has happened to the charge on your atom?

Because I took an electron away because electrons are negatively charged and it's more positive?

That's right.

And how about my atom?

It became more negative.

That's right.

So we actually now have two atoms that have different charges.

And when you have a positive and a negative, what happens to them when you bring them together, they're attracted.

That's right.

Opposite charges attract.

Now what happened if I take another atom and this is the same atom is yours, so hold that one up a second.

And I bring it into contact so that I take another one of these electrons away.

So now I'm even more negative for this atom.

And you've got two positives.

How do they interact?

They want to stay away from each other.

That's right.

Similar charges will repel.

So when we look at what's happening with how the balloon sticks, that's because it is opposite charges.

But when we look at how things push away, it's because they are similar charge in their repelling.

Let's actually now bend some water.

We can be water benders.

That's right.

That's right.

This is an activity that's really easy for you to do at home.

That is a great illustration of how static electricity works So if you're going ahead and take your PVC pipe and charge it up, if you don't have PVC pipe at home, you can use a balloon and just rub it against your head or against a scarf.

I've got a plastic cup that I've used a nail to poke a small hole in the bottom, so I'll pour water into the cup And then gravity is pulling the water out of the bottom in a straight stream.

But if you bring the pipe near it.

Do you see how it's bending?

Yes.

Yes.

How it's bending.

The what's actually happening is that negatively charged pipe is pulling the water molecules towards it.

Go ahead and try it again.

There we go.

There we go, see, it's bending it down here.

What's actually happening?

Is that water is made up of an oxygen and two hydrogen atoms, and together there's a partial charge that's partially positive down here at the hydrogens and it's partially negative at the oxygen, so as the water is coming down in a stream.

The negatively charged pipe attracts the partially charged hydrogens, and it pulls it towards it.

But gravity is still carrying most of the work, so it is still falling down instead of running completely sideways.

Let's do one more activity that talks about the impact of static electricity.

And that's the levitating orb.

And I actually know an orb and you actually have practiced this already.

So we've got a piece, we've got some Christmas tinsel that we've actually tied into a knot at both ends.

So it's six pieces of Christmas tinsel, and you're going to charge up the negative charge up the pole, the PVC pole with negative from your hair.

And then we're going to see what happens when we bring the orb, the tinsel orb near it.

Nicely done.

It's floating, it's floating.

So what's happening here is that the negatively charged pole when the tinsel drops, the tinsel just almost touches and in some cases touches and a negative charge is transferred to it.

So now we've got negatively charged tinsel and a negatively charged orb.

And what happens when we have two things with the similar charge?

They want to go away.

They want to go away from each other.

And so they repel.

And each of the single strands of the tinsel is also negatively charged.

And so they're pulling away from each other as well, which is why you get that beautiful orb.

So we've talked a lot about static electricity, and you get shocked because you are generating an imbalance of electrons, you're becoming temporarily negative.

And when you touch something, those electrons want to get away from you.

You want to go back to your neutral charge so you can use something that you can you can spray on like an anti-static to help reduce that Often, static electricity is less in the summer when there's high humidity when it's not so.

So there's not heat and dry air inside, but sometimes we just have to live with static electricity You're just you're just a charged individual.

I'm a transmission line construction groundsman when I saw the opportunity, when I saw a flier.

You know, I all with all my family and I looked at research about it and I just wanted to be a part of.

Science is always going to be the is.

You're in the field of electricity.

So I feel like there's always going to be some.

There's going to be used.

They they do Ohm's Law, which is pretty much, you know, covering a lot of electricity.

So a lot of science is going to be used technology to becaus you're using a lot of equipment.

You know, the truck right there, you got, you know, tools when you work in the bucket you're going to have hand tools You have to you need to put on lines and so is always going to be technology as well.

I think for me, you know, since I'm a young person is I'll say to people like me who are young, just, you know, look, is a field that is always going to be there.

You're going to always need electricity.

And it's almost like, you know, we need people for it And so if you think you can live up to the task of, you know, taking that challenge or, you know, doing the science behind it, doing the technology behind all of it, you know, just do it because you always go to the electricity.

The help is always going to be needed.

It's helped me grow as a man, as a person, because you put in to, for me, transmission with different people and I'm with them almost every day.

So you have to learn on the fly.

You got to challenge yourself.

You got to, you know, make sure you teach yourself, you know, studying all of it takes a lot.

But I know that anybody can do it.

You just got to put your mind will and you put all that into being a part of this now is like, I don't want to do anything else, I guess.

I like it a lot.

I'm Cruz and I'm Keisha, and we're here at Southern Research in Birmingham, Alabama So what is this thing right here?

This is a Van Degraffe and we have Molly here with us today who's going to tell us about the Van der Graph.

But before I want to give you a fun fact.

So this was invented by a physicist named Robert Van de Graaf, who is a native of Alabama in the city of Tuscaloosa.

He got his bachelor's degree in mathematics from the University of Alabama, as well as mechanical engineering degree from the University of Alabama.

How awesome is that?

We're going to look at an invention from somebody who's from our home state.

All right, Molly, tell us about the Van de Graaff So the Van de Graaff is an electrostatic generator, so how it works is you can't see it, but there are little brushes both down here and up here in this belt inside this clear tube moves.

So what happens is as the belt moves, it collects charge from these brushes and you see this large dome right here as the belt moves the charges up, it's they spread out all over the dome, which is what makes the phenomenon happen that we're about to observe with the Van de Graaff.

So I'm going to turn it on and we're going to we're going to see what happens as these charges spread across the sphere.

So when you talk about charges that you talk about electrons, yes.

So depending on the Van de Graaff, it could be a positive or a negative charge.

It just depends on this particular machine that you're using.

But as you can see here, there's lightning, which is super awesome.

But what is happening is there are so many charges in the sphere that they want to escape.

They there are so many that they want to get away, and the grounding line here provides an avenue for them to get back to a less charged area, which is why it's creating this lightning.

Oh yeah, neat.

So there was a lightning last night, storm?

Yeah.

Yeah, I like that.

Yes.

So I remember that lightning too.

So it is very similar.

Yes, because as a like I was saying, the sphere is just wanting to get rid of charges.

It's similar in a cloud, a cloud that's moving over the Earth is collecting charged as it goes.

And so it eventually collects enough charge just like the sphere that it wants to get rid of it, which is why it strikes the ground, just like the sphere is striking the ground, right?

Wow.

Pretty interesting.

I guess you had to be very careful when we're using this Van de Graaff, though, right?

Practicing safety?

Yes, definitely.

As I turn it off, you're it's pretty easy to get shocked The shock is it like dangerous, like you probably won't.

You couldn't get electrocuted or anything, but it will give you a pretty nasty shock.

I've done it many times.

So you can.

I just what I just did there is I grounded it, which means that I can now touch it safely without it shocking me.

And because we touched it and the charges went to the grounding rods.

Oh, so I've some pretty good tricks.

I want to show you guys.

All right.

Yeah.

And who will love to see you?

All right.

So you like to blow bubbles, Chris?

Yeah.

All right.

Let's find out what happened when you blow these bubbles at the Van de Graaff.

OK, all right.

Here we can use this right?

All right.

I'm going to remove the grounding rod so we can use the full scale of all of the charges on the Va de Graaff.

All right.

So I'm going to turn it on and I want you to blow those bubbles out of.

And they were just like regular bubbles that we used when we were playing as a child Right?

Yeah.

Like, I'm sure like you guys, you played bubbles before, like that's just normal, but so go ahead and play with your hands.

Oh, oh, whoa.

Wow.

The bubbles are coming back.

Yeah, they're bouncing off.

Why is that, Molly?

So when crude blows the bubbles, the bubbles take on the same charge as Cruz which is a different charge than the sphere, the Van de Graaff.

So as the bubbles hit the Van de Graaff, they are immediately taking on the charge of the sphere, which then causes them to repel.

So, oh yeah, OK. Because like charges repel other like charges.

So as soon as the bubble takes on the charge of the Van de Graaff it's going to start to repel the other bubbles is that that makes sense.

So that's why they were coming back.

OK, yeah.

Yeah, thanks.

Oh, OK.

So this is a pretty cool thing that we're able to do with the Van de Graaff to have.

Have you guys ever seen like ever having had your hair stand up or anything like that?

Yeah.

So like, that's often a product of static electricity So here we have this blue wig that we are going to put on our Van de Graaff.

But we're not feeling blue today.

We're feeling happy, right?

No, no, the Van de Graaff maybe feeling a little blue.

We're doing great.

All right.

I'm going to turn this on.

We're going to see what happens Whoa.

Oh, whoa.

Did you see that Cruz?

Yeah.

Oh, wow.

So this the charges are spreading out throughout this week because they're their to escape fear right in the wig is sitting on the sphere, so they're wanting to escape in the hairs are so light that they're just able to lift up.

Yeah.

So the lighter the hair, the better they lift you know, Cruz He has light colored hair.

Yeah.

You have blond hair.

Your hair is pretty.

It looks pretty thin and light.

You think you want to try this?

Sure, it's safe.

I promise.

I have an expert.

Go Cruze.

OK, so we're going to quickly discharge the Van de Graaff.

You can see it, so we'll grab that wig off there.

OK, so here Cruz is about to stand on a plastic stool, which is going to make sure that he it's basically ensured that all of the charges are going to get into him and off the ground, if that makes sense.

So Cruz, if you want to go ahead and put your hand on the Van de Graaff we're going to turn it on and see what happens.

Oh, wow.

You should see your hair.

Oh, sorry.

See?

Well, as you as you can see, it is a pretty you can get you can get a shock if you're not careful .

But yeah, shake your head around a little bit.

I'm going to turn up a little more.

Oh yeah, I can see those hairs standing up you know.

Look.

Go go cruise crazy.

So what is happening is the spheres.

Yeah.

Stay away from here and start talking again.

What is happening is the charges are the sphere and they are traveling all throughout Cruz, However, his hair is the lightest part of him, which is why it's standing up like isn't it so awesome.

That is.

Yeah, I think so, too.

All right.

So now we're going to turn this off and cruz if you want to just go ahead and rub yourself on, just like rub your hands.

Yeah.

And what Cruz is doing right now is he is charging himself because if he touches anything metal right now, he's going to get a pretty nasty shock.

And we don't want that and we do not want that.

Yeah, that was pretty nerve wracking.

It was, yeah, I don't.

I don't blame you.

I remember the first five times I did it.

It was pretty, pretty scary for me as well.

OK, so do y'all want to see one more trick is my favorite thing that the Van de Graaff Yes, he definitely.

It's a it's a real party.

I got to warn you now.

OK, we're ready for a party.

We party.

So I'm going to quickly tell you what's going to happen before it happens.

But I'm stacking these pie plates on here.

So the charges in the sphere are going to move up through the pie plates, So what do you ya'll think might happen to you?

What do you think, Cruz?

They might fly off.

Yeah, I don't know.

Let's find out.

OK.

I would Cruz.

Yeah, let's see.

Oh, oh wow.

What their way through.

Oh, look at them.

Go, Oh wow.

Oh.

Yes.

Oh, wow.

Right.

That was awesome, Molly.

That's so much fun.

It was party in a pan.

Really?

Yes.

Yes.

So now that we've learned about this, I think we got a better understanding of why lightning does what it does when we have a lightning storm.

So what's going on with it?

What are some key things we talked about Cruz static in your hair?

Yeah, we talked about that.

The energy.

Yeah, the charges.

Yes.

And remember how Miley said they wanted to release themselves out?

And so that is what's going on.

So now we've got a better understanding, like when we see lightning or even we run across the floor, you know, you touch a doorknob and get that little shock Molly you were expert you gave us.

All right.

We had a great time with you today.

Walk, you walk.

So in high school, I was always go with math and science and took several career assessments trying to decide what am I going to go to college for?

What's my degree going to be in all the career assessments pointed towards engineering areas.

So I did a lot of research and found engineering has a variety of things to do, and that's what sparked my interest.

I have a big passion for helping people, and I saw a lot of engineering disciplines that I can do that and be an engineer.

I started my civil engineering with the plans to go into household design and designing custom homes for people.

Once I started going to school, I found my love for what I do now, which is serving people with power.

You know, when the lights go out, they need somebody to get the lights back on, and I'm one of those that help make that happen.

So we use engineering a lot.

Math is a big one, math and a little bit of science, a lot of design.

But I think a lot of our a lot of our designs come from math bases.

So we have a lot of technology features coming into play to help make our systems better That involves, of course, more math and science and understanding of how systems work.

So using or math and science and technology driven, we drive to make things better for us and for people to use.

The most rewarding thing to me is when you have a major disaster like hurricanes that happen all the time, a lot of people lose power.

A lot of those lines are down, they're destroyed and you have to basically rebuild from scratch after rebuilding those lines and getting power back to the people that have lost it for days or weeks at a time.

The joy that's on their face when they see those lights come back on, make my job worth it for me .

Thanks for watching.

Alabama's STEM explorers.

If you missed anything or you want to watch something again, you can check out our website at Alabama STEM Explorers dot org.

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Feel free to send us a video question or an email on our website.

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Thanks again for watching.

We'll be back next week.

Alabama STEM Explorers is made possible by the generous support of Hudson Alpha Institute for Biotechnology, translating the power of genomics into real world results.

Southern Research Solving the world's hardest problems The Holle Family Foundation established to honor the legacy of Brigadier General Everett Holly and his parents, Evelyn and Fred Holley, champions of servant leadership Alabama works a network of interconnected providers connecting business and industr needs to a highly skilled and trained workforce.

Alabama STEM Council dedicated to improving STEM education, career awareness and workforce development across Alabama.

Alabama Mathematics, Science, Technolog and Engineering Coalition for Education advocating for exceptional STEM education in Alabama.

Alabama Math, Science and Technology Initiative, the Alabama Department of Education's initiative to improve math and science teaching statewide.