Re: Static Electricity and why does it have to be me?

Hi Brett!

I have an article on my "static electricity" website about this. See http://www.amasci.com/emotor/zapped.html. When the humidity is low, just sitting in a car can electrify our clothing (our clothing gets charged one polarity, and the surface of the car seat gets charged with opposite polarity.) The type of pants and jacket you wear will make a big difference, and some types of car seat materials will be worse than others. When the humidity is fairly high, car-door sparks become less of a problem.

I recently found a research paper about this, and the results were interesting: even at fairly high humidity (55%), some combinations of seat covers and clothing could create 20,000 volts on the person.

A trick for eliminating the pain of sparks: hold a piece of metal such as car keys or a metal pen, then touch the car door with it after you leave the car. The spark will still appear, but you will barely feel it, since all of the destructive energy is hitting the metal surface, rather than drilling a hole in your finger!

Some people suspect that they become charged mysteriously, without walking on carpets or sitting on "staticky" car seats. Needless to say, modern science pooh-poohs this idea. Even so, if it is a real effect, this fact should not be too difficult to prove. If an "electrostatic voltmeter" is used to continuously measure the voltage between a seated person and the earth, and if their voltage is seen to slowly rise, then this would suggest that "Electric Humans" are not just a crazy notion.

There are a couple of reports of "Electric Humans" on my website called Report your Unusual Phenomenon. See the section under Electrified People.