Talk:GCSE Science/Static Electricity

Hi Everyone! Bill Beaty here. "Static electricity is electricity which is static" is a common misconception which has made its way into K6 textbooks. In fact, "Static" electricity retains all of its characteristics even when it flows, therefore its unmoving-ness is not important in understanding it. A better definition: Static electricity occurs whenever a piece of matter contains more protons than electrons, or when it contains more electrons than protons. Or this one:''When the positive and negative charges in matter are not equal, the matter has a charge imbalance. We call this imbalance by the name Static Electricity. Remember that rubbing some fur against some rubber does not create any charges of electricity, instead it creates an imbalance'' of charges (the charges, the electrons and protons, were already there beforehand.)  See: Static electricity misconception #1 --Wjbeaty 19:36, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)