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Have you ever taken a sweater off and had your hair stand up or walked across a rug and got a shock when you touched something? If you have, you know what static electricity is. Did you know that the same thing that causes static electricity also causes lightning in the sky? In this lesson, you will learn more about static and current electricity.

Static electricity means that you have an electrical charge that is not going anywhere. The charge is waiting for a chance to complete the circuit. This is why you do not feel anything until you touch the door handle, and then you get zapped! By touching the door handle, you have given the charge a place to go and it flows through you fingers to the door. If you have enough static electricity built up, you might even see a spark! When the electricity is able to flow, it is called an electrical discharge.

The same thing happens in the sky. A negative charge of electrons builds up, and when the charge is strong enough, it is attracted by earth and flows towards earth.

Click on the Play button to watch a video that explains how lightening is formed.

One way that you can create a large static charge is with a Van der Graaff generator. It builds up a static charge by friction similar to what you do when you rub your feet on a carpet to build up a charge to shock someone. The Van der Graaff generator does this only on a much larger scale. A rubber belt rubs on a piece of metal, and that builds up a charge on a metal sphere. If you hold this metal sphere, your hair will all stand up. If this metal sphere is close to anything else that is metal an electrical discharge occurs.

Click on the Play button below to watch a video to see what happens when a large static charge is created with a Van der Graaff generator.

Current electricity makes all of our electronic devices possible. It is involved in powering all of the electrical devices that you use, from washing machines to flashlights and from telephones to gaming consoles. This form of electricity exists when electrical charges are able to constantly flow. It is electricity that moves from one place to another. You will learn much more about current electricity (or an electric current) in the next lesson.