I'm seriously static prone, so I get shocked by everything ALL THE TIME (mostly in the winter). I've been waiting for this video my whole life. I'm totally trying the hand on the car trick and will let you know the results. As for the dryer sheets, they work wonders. In the winter, I make a habit of carrying a couple around with me wherever I go.
I use the dryer sheet technique on clothing as well as trying to keep myself grounded like the video. The carpet in my office is very static. There are carpets designed specifically to be anti-static, usually for offices and anywhere expensive electronics are used. There is also carpet sprays that prevent static buildup.
Styrofoam can develop a large static charge very easily, and it is therefore not supposed to be placed in an ESD sensitive environment where sensitive electronics can be damaged. The fact that it is an insulator just means that it will not conduct a continuous DC current after it develops a charge. One analogy it to think of it as a capacitor. The center of a capacitor consists of an insulator, and will block DC current, yet the entire purpose of the capacitor is to hold a charge.
+GlassTopRX7 memory doesn't seem too prone to static destruction. my friends used to just keep a ton of sticks in a cardoard box. just tossed in there like a child's toy box.
GlassTopRX7 yeah but just being tossed around in amongst a box of other stuff equals more static than Styrofoam. May have been some in the boxes. I noticed one of my parts was in a regular plastic bag once
Memory is conductive so it's not going to build up a static charge, cardboard boxes tend to hold too much moisture to problematic on their own. Styrofoam is non conductive so it can build up an electric charge and hold it. It takes about 100v of ESD to damage ram, a box full of peanut can easily generate and hold over 10,000v of ESD. It's fine right up to the point when you reach in the box to grab a stick and it discharges. It's exactly what was demonstrated in this video. There are new starch based peanuts that are conductive enough not pose much of a risk.
Excellent video as always. I would also add that what's painful is not the electrical discharge current but rather the flux, that is the amount of current across a given skin area. So a good way of avoiding the pain of the shock would be to touch your car with an open palm after exiting, rather than touching it with just the tip of your finger.
Take your car's ignition key(or a door key if you have a proximity key), and after you get out, tap the car with it. If it sparks, you won't be the point of exit, the key will, and it won't hurt. I discovered this when I put a key in a deadbolt and it sparked, though I didn't feel it. Works for doorknobs too.
Haha. I used to have a car that shocked me every single time I got out. The shock didn't really hurt, but the bad part was KNOWING it was about to happen. I used to park that car and for a few seconds before getting out I would sit there like "Ooooooohhhhhh dammit" :(
I only got shocked once! When I was with my cousin and I was charging my tablet and even was my cousin then he accidently touched my leg and we got shocked
My dad used to carry a key when he was touching a door so the key would get the shock, not him when he touched something metallic, like a doorknob or a gate. Works like a charm ;)
I once worked in a building where the combination of the carpet and my shoes caused a shock every time I touched metal, so I would touch everything with a key first. People laughed at me, until I walked up to them and touched them with my key.
what to do when in winter you go for groceries and after dragging the shopping cart in superstore when you touch any metal stand or metal post you get same shock....even though shopping carts are mostly metal made and you are touching them during shopping but when you touch any other metal stand, display, pole or post in store or outside you get this shock......what to do for that?...........i think its same situation as you described but different scenario.
The shopping cart has rubber wheels, so it builds up a charge. Hospital trolleys have conductive wheels to avoid that, you will see them, coloured yellow.
I'm so glad i found this channel. I've been a physics "enthusiast" since highscool and now being in my thirties i still love this kind of videos. I'm going to show the mirror video to my niece, it's going to "flip" her mind. Keep up the good work.
I love the feeling of static shock. I will purposely shock myself at work and at home. When I get shocked, I get the ASMR tingles in my head. It feels so good!
Thanks for the video. Another easy way to not get shocked leaving a car is to cover your seat with cotton fabric (assuming you are usually wearing cotton). It's the combination of different materials that creates the charge separation, so if seat and clothes are the same fabric, no charge builds up. Also, to make your hair stand up better with a VDG generator, here are two tricks I've found: (based on doing it hundreds of times with students) - Dampening your hair with a spray bottle makes it work a lot better (yes, counter-intuitive) - Standing on a plastic stool to insulate you from the ground is super important too.
It's worth mentioning that with all but the largest static shocks the only reason you feel them is due to the heat of the spark against your skin. In other words, the static discharge is causing you a very localised burn. This is the reason you don't feel a static shock if you touch the car door (or door handle, or metal banister) with your keys: you are isolated from the heat of the spark.
I'm going to try this because even if I put my hand on the metal of my car while getting out I still feel the static it's just not coming as one big shock but it's still super uncomfortable to me. 😭
I get shocked every single time I get out of my car unless it’s raining out and I’m tired of it. I’m gonna try it right now and see if it works I have a feeling it’s because I have fabric seats and I slide out of my vehicle cause it’s an SUV. It worked. I held onto the side of my car when I exited. Thank you very much.
In the early 60's auto parts stores sold a strap the looped around your rear axle tube and draged and bounced along the ground discharging the car's static electricity.for this particular problem.
Nope nope nope, this is not entirely true. The reason you get zapped by your car most of the time is NOT due to friction between you and the car seat. It is due to the friction of the air against the car itself which charges the car body. Engineers already SOLVED this problem: carbon black in the tires. The carbon in the tires usually is conductive enough to discharge whatever charge builds up during driving. However, when the electrical resistance of your tires is too high, or if you have very old, non-carbonized tires, the body of your car can build up an amazing amount of charge. The instant your feet hit the ground, they are at earth potential. If you then touch the car: it will discharge through you. Anyway: for anyone who has problems with getting zapped by their car: you can buy special rubber flaps with steel wire inside that drag over the road, called grounding straps, thus creating a nice grounding point. It will still be possible to get zapped by your car due to friction on your car seat, but that should be a very minor issue. Also: if you get shocked by your car from friction between you and the seat, you should be able to shock yourself when you are inside the car and charge yourself up by wiggling heavily in your seat. If you're only able to shock yourself when your feet touch the ground: you need a ground strap. +Physics Girl: I think you didn't do the story justice by not including the air friction explanation, as it is far more likely. Also: the styrofoam on top of the Van De Graaff is charged by electrostatic induction.
+LReBe7 Dude! You are actually ryt! But i want you to watch this video again! And apparently she is wearing a footwear which is an insulator and so the shock experienced in THIS CASE is because of the friction between you and the seat! SO +Physics Girl is ryt!
Akshaya Ravi Of course her footwear is an insulator, but when dealing with static electricity that can shock you, were talking about several kilovolts. Obviously the power is very small, otherwise it would kill you, but the electrical potential is extremely high(it wouldn't be able to spark across a gap if it weren't so high). But the insulation of her soles doesn't matter much, as long as the spark can bridge the gap, there will be current. The paint on the car is also an insulator, but the car still shocked her. Insulators have a high resistance, not infinite resistance. And all must obey Ohm's law. Your point is not proven. The only way I would consider believing this theory of getting zapped because the friction of getting out of the seat, is by seeing someone step out of the car onto a glass plate or a plastic stool and then touch the car. Or even better: when I see someone fidgeting violently in their seat and touching the car body while they're still inside the car. I want to eliminate the ground potential from the equation before I prefer the much less energetic source of static electricity(getting out of your seat) over the much more energetic source(friction from the air). Occam's razor.
Nice explanation. But tell me one thing. Can you explain why she didn't feel any shock in the last minutes of her video? If she was charged and the car wasn't, then her explanation makes sense. Because, she prevented to create a big gap. But, if you said that the car became charged by the air friction, then can we say that she was faking that part? Because there was no way that she could reduce the gap between the car's and her's as the car had been charged so big.
+Muhammad Ichsan I would assume that was faked, because it doesn't look like your typical dry winter day. I can't know for sure, Physics Girl will have to tell us herself.
+Physics Girl The touching-the-car-metal-before-stepping-out trick works often, but sometimes if the car itself is charged, it could discharge through your toes to ground. Have you ever had this? Cool demo with the styrofoam plate, btw - a useful principle for keeping particulate-dust off (plastic) workpieces while e.g. laser-machining.
+sbraz Actually, if your shoes *were* conducting (just like holding a large metallic key) you wouldn't feel the zap. "Regular" shoes, on the other hand, are insulating, and while this will increase the breakdown-voltage by a lot, it is still comparable to the breakdown voltage in air. To turn your argument around: If you were wearing a pair of (insulating) rubber gloves, would you not feel the zap while stepping out of the car? Hm, we really need to try this out sometime...
Science is so much funner when you get unexpected results. Because that means that more is happening then meets the eye and you are compelled to figure out exactly what is REALLY happening.
To Physics girl i am a disabled person (wheelchair) with a normal education . I was really bad at science and I did not like it, however your videos have generated a certain amount of interest and you deserve all the praise you get. There should be more people like you in the world. You are far better than anything that is on TV today and many people can benefitt from your knowledge and expierance. Just a thought for a future video matbe you can do one on how physics csn hrlp disabled people live their lives.
I get shocked nonstop in the winter months. I wish it were a superpower BUT it's annoying. People think I'm crazy but when I go to open doors I smack them with the back of my hand first or just use my elbow. When I take my jacket off at home I'll smack the wall a few time or get my kids to high five me REAL hard. I broke my toe once from kicking a wall after a static shocked angered me to hulk status. Yep. Static. The struggle is real. Thankfully I've figured out bizarre methods to minimize it. :)
Maybe there's an element of your clothes or your shoes that contributes to your predicament. And this is why i don't wear cheap jackets or cheap shoes in winter.
2:45. Touch the metal car frame as soon as you open the door and before you start getting out of the car. Just saved you 4min and 10 sec - you're welcome.
This is good advice for people who fill up at self serve gas stations. Static charges have, on occasion, resulted in the ignition of gas fumes while pumping gas.
I used to work in a place that handled components with microchips. We had training to avoid causing damage with electrostatic discharge. Some of the training included films with scenes from gasoline stations where there had been fires caused by sparks igniting fuel.
@@ploperdung There have been studies of HUNDREDS of fires at gas stations and most of them are caused by women getting out of their vehicles after having gotten back inside WHILE FUELING. Yes, the tiniest spark can, in fact, ignite gasoline fumes, which may be invisibly swirling around you, and then you pull the nozzle from the tank without ALSO touching the car with your other hand (to keep the electrical charge gradient small).
3:30 The launch of Apollo 12 in 1969 nearly came to disaster when, for some idiotic reason it was decided to launch the rocket in the rain, as there was no lightning in the area. However no one seemed to think about the fact that EVERY rainstorm leads to a large charge difference between the cloud and the ground. The voltage is usually not high enough to create lightning as the charge must be very high to pass through the 3000 to 5000 feet of air between the ground and the cloud. When a bolt of lightning strikes it is so hot that it ionizes the air, making that column of air much more conductive. This then allows the cloud to discharge most of it's voltage which is why lightning tend to flicker. In the rain storm that was over the launch pad at the time of launch the charge wasn't great enough to overcome the resistance of non-ionized air. But lightning isn't the only thing that can ionize air. A Saturn 5 rocket can to it as well. As soon as the rocket got close enough a bolt of lightning struck the rocket and followed the smoke trail to the launch pad TWICE. It was just pure luck that the only thing that happened was a bunch of circuit breakers were tripped, which the crew was quickly able to reset.
A good way to not ignite a fire when fueling your vehicle is to do the touch-the-metal trick when exiting EVERY time. Then you won't have an electric potential built when you go to put your hands by the fuel port, preventing a spark
You have helped me enough I was thinking that maybe I got sick because every time when I get out of a car or when I want to touch something I was feeling shock I was even planning to find Doctor to ask about that issue but your video helped me enough I can't thank you enough
Thank you. I was getting tired of shocking the pump at the gas station. The display on the pump was actually going blank for about 5 seconds before coming back on. It was making me 5 seconds late to work, so yeah, thanks.
To avoid/minimize getting shocked by touching a doorknob, I hold the metal part of a key between my thumb and finger, then use that to touch the doorknob. The spark will leave the key, not my hand. If it's really cold and dry out, the noise and spark, combined with the anticipation of a _potential_ shock, still makes me jump a little, but at least the pain isn't there. :-)
+Chris Clark I do this too. This way you can still see the spark and hear the pop without feeling it. It's pretty cool to see your own personal tiny lightning bolt.
Stupid question but you did make sure to insulate yourself from ground at the end there right? Just asking because you didn't seem taller and most shoes will do just about nothing for that experiment.
A way to stop a shock from doorknobs, etc. is to touch them with something metallic, eg. a key, first. The ionisation happens at the tip of the key not your skin.
Hopefully, the store designers selected flooring material and shopping cart wheel material to be compatible, so not to cause shopping carts to build up electrostatic charge. But, not always. I heard about one store that had a terrible opening week because the designers didn't do that. The flooring material and shopping cart wheels were a great combo for generating static charge.
Thank you so much!! This CONSTANTLY happens to me whenever I get out of my car, and it really hurts. I thought it was just because I wear jeans and have cloth seats-yes, I know that's the basis of it. But this was so helpful in understanding why!
1. Did you maybe ground yourself while trying to get your hair get charged? 2. (Especially for the kids) hang a ping pong ball about 5-10 cm next to the van de graaf generator and see what happens. (You can paint the ball with graphite spray paint to make the surface conducting to amplify the effect, but it should work with a normal ping pong ball)
In winter I always touch that galvanised door lock loop, visible at 2:33, with my keys or fingers as I slide out of the car. Getting zapped by the metal shelving at the supermarket is always hazardous as I always forget to take care, you're thinking about groceries, not static. Don't need a coat or jumper where I live.
Great video! I remember reading that in gas stations ignition of vapors through these static induced sparks are much more common with young, fit people than with elders, for example, because the elders hold to the metal to support themselves, which grounds them. Younger, more fit people end up never grounding themselves before touching the vapor-rich tank opening: WHOOSH!
I deliver pizza and get shocked almost everytime I leave the car (and I leave the car a lot of times per night :( ). I hope your trick can help me! Thanks for the video ♪♫
+ViolettaSachra It's sliding across the car seat toward the door that creates the charge. To bleed off the charge while it is trying to build up, you should place your (left) hand on the metal edge of the open door before you step out onto the ground. This should work every time.
Awesome Dianna ! Thanks for the trick. I'm an engineer and I know equations of Maxwell but I have never solved my problems of shocks after car exiting with it. I just thought that I was a bad insulator. Science is so fun, I really like your channel, keep it up !
This used to happen to me after I bought my first car. I never happened with the other cars I drove, probably because those all had leather seats. I eventually learned the trick of holding the door as I got out, but before that my method was just grabbing the door hard enough that the pain from that would cover up the pain of the shock.
+Ian Cloyd She will make the video of How to not get shocked exiting a bus. When it be made, and people say: How to stop yourself from getting shocked exiting a bus . . . Go by bike She will make the video: How to not get shocked exiting a bike. And it will be forever happening. Some day she will make the video: How to not get shocked exiting a UFO, and in the "playlists" section, there will be a playlist called "How to not get shocked exiting a vehicle".
+Ian Cloyd -- Incorrect. That's how to avoid getting out of the car by not getting in in the first place. Presumably, that's one of the conditions of the problem, being in the car. IOW, the more detailed wording of the question would be, "If one gets shocked while exiting a car, how does one avoid the shock in this circumstance?" Furthermore, if you took the bus, you would have a host of new problems, avoiding the police harassing you while you wait, avoiding the local punks from robbing you while you wait, avoiding the bus driver from being rude to you (or throwing you off) for being a rider, etc. Obviously, you don't have experience riding a bus in an American city like Kansas City.
I actually figured out the car trick myself a while back since I tend to get shocked a lot. Although, it is nice to see the science instead of just deductive reasoning.
Part of the shock comes from the distance of the drive too. Just like rubbing a balloon against hair or clothes, rubber tires rubbing the road will pick up some charge and can transfer it to the outside of the car which acts like a Faraday cage if not separately grounded. I've been told that semi-truck tires have metal flecks in the outer tire to help ground them so charge doesn't build up as much. Also, a lot of grocery stores now have carts with little changes dangling off of one wheel to help ground them.
+iVulgarThrust What's funny is that I grew up in Hawaii, which is like Florida in car-shocking. So when I moved to dryer places, I got WAY more bothered by this than people who were used to it. Oh it happens. I hate it.
+Physics Girl Same here! Growing up in Texas I never recall getting shocked in winter, moved up north and now I loathe winter! I always keep a key or some other piece of metal in my hand to discharge my self.
Handy tip. If you suspect you are charged but you need to quickly go out that door. Hold a key tightly and touch the knob with it first. If there's a discharge it will spread over the surface of your fingers that is touching the key eliminating the single point arc to your skin that causes you pain.
Honestly, I finally remembered to buy Dryer Sheets today simply because I got shocked while getting out of my truck on my way into the store to purchase batteries; because obviously I needed more electricity. ;-) I am thankful to finally have been shown the pre-grounding technique , it seems so obvious now. I have used dryer sheets on my cloths seats and that coupled with actually using them on my cloths in the dryer does dramatically damper the effect. Cool vid. Thanx!
rubbing a dryer sheet on the car seat does help. I just put my left calf against the car when getting out. Winter gloves insulate against electricity as well as the cold.
When I lived up in the north, during winter times, static electricity is just shockingly frequent. Getting out of the car and ground myself became a habit i developed. The other thing I found useful is to get a humidifier at home. By making the air humid, it helps discharge the static when you take off a sweater or get up from a plastic chair, etcs.
3:20 that won't shock you unless you are somehow connected to ground, and even if it does shock you the fuse will instantly blow or if not the RCD will trigger.
Thank you for the tips ! Holding the door whilst leaving the car works great ! Btw so nice to see a woman who doesn't need to flaunt herself to get views 🙏
I'm so glad I was able to watch this video.i am constantly getting shocked when I get out of the car.so I was determined to find a solution.so thank you,I know what to do now
I always touch the car's window pane first upon disembarking and then touch the metal body to close the door, and that has solved the shock problem for me. I do not know the physics behind it, but it works for me. The same on trains: glass first, metal second.
This video is very informative. I looked for an answer w/ my experience last night. The room is so cold because of the AC, i put my blanket with me already then i start scratching my pants inside. When I was about to change my blanket to bigger one static starts, it's pretty amazing!!! It's light green like tiny lightning that buzzes all over the blanket! When I was about to through the blanket away (for i thought it's because of the blanket) I saw all of my finger tips having those tiny lightning in them!!! Love it!
Awesome!!! Thanks a lot for this very practical explanation! I hated being shocked every time leaving the car! No shocks anymore when leaving the car!!!
I've taken some shocks from my car that were way beyond just a little static snap. Some of the shocks I have gotten from my car were enough to cause the tips of my fingers to hurt and go numb for a few seconds, and the snap was /very/ loud. I will have to try the grounding trick.
You can also just knock your knuckles against the outside of the car. Placing your knuckle quickly on the car (not slowly and cautiously) and the broader surface contact area of the knuckle both dissipate the discharge so you don't feel it or hear it as a spark. Also your knuckles are less sensitive than your palm or finger tips, further reducing any sensation.
I used to face the same problem, many a times I dropped things like mobile, camera, etc when I get shock while getting out of car. what I do to avoid is to ground myself, as soon as I get out if I wear sandals, I just turn my leg and slightly touch the ground with my toes , if I am wearing shoes, then I used the technique mentioned by this girl or sometimes touch objects on ground with my hand.
You didn't mention the Faraday Cage! Both the Van De Graff generator and the car are Faraday cages. Any excess charge in a hollow conductor jumps to the surface, leaving the interior neutral. Thats what makes the VDG generator work. When you get out of a car without touching it, the charge on your body is free to have a different charge than the car, which leads to a shock. Touching the car brings the two charges to equillibrium, preventing the shock. As you leave the car, your body moves from inside to outside the Faraday cage. Your skin gradually becomes part of the exterior of the Faraday cage. In really dry weather, you can feel the charge move onto you as you get out.
I'm seriously static prone, so I get shocked by everything ALL THE TIME (mostly in the winter). I've been waiting for this video my whole life. I'm totally trying the hand on the car trick and will let you know the results. As for the dryer sheets, they work wonders. In the winter, I make a habit of carrying a couple around with me wherever I go.
+The Science Asylum REALLY?? I didn't know that people actually used dryer sheets for something like this.
+The Science Asylum Yep, I've known lots of people that use the dryer sheet trick.
Physics Girl REALLY!!! I have to carry them. The shock pain gets real old real quick...
+The Science Asylum Just FYI, synthetic materials will tend to cause more static too, rubbing two synthetic together doubly so.
I use the dryer sheet technique on clothing as well as trying to keep myself grounded like the video. The carpet in my office is very static. There are carpets designed specifically to be anti-static, usually for offices and anywhere expensive electronics are used. There is also carpet sprays that prevent static buildup.
Styrofoam can develop a large static charge very easily, and it is therefore not supposed to be placed in an ESD sensitive environment where sensitive electronics can be damaged. The fact that it is an insulator just means that it will not conduct a continuous DC current after it develops a charge. One analogy it to think of it as a capacitor. The center of a capacitor consists of an insulator, and will block DC current, yet the entire purpose of the capacitor is to hold a charge.
+Eugene Khutoryansky I just commented that vendors would ship me memory with styrofoam peanuts, computer nerd WTF moment.
+GlassTopRX7 memory doesn't seem too prone to static destruction. my friends used to just keep a ton of sticks in a cardoard box. just tossed in there like a child's toy box.
*****
The static charge of a card board box is small compared to box of styrofoam peanuts.
GlassTopRX7 yeah but just being tossed around in amongst a box of other stuff equals more static than Styrofoam. May have been some in the boxes. I noticed one of my parts was in a regular plastic bag once
Memory is conductive so it's not going to build up a static charge, cardboard boxes tend to hold too much moisture to problematic on their own. Styrofoam is non conductive so it can build up an electric charge and hold it.
It takes about 100v of ESD to damage ram, a box full of peanut can easily generate and hold over 10,000v of ESD. It's fine right up to the point when you reach in the box to grab a stick and it discharges.
It's exactly what was demonstrated in this video. There are new starch based peanuts that are conductive enough not pose much of a risk.
Excellent video as always. I would also add that what's painful is not the electrical discharge current but rather the flux, that is the amount of current across a given skin area. So a good way of avoiding the pain of the shock would be to touch your car with an open palm after exiting, rather than touching it with just the tip of your finger.
That would have the added benefit of giving the flux fewer nerve endings to affect.
I love those moments where you have no idea what's going on and get to learn something new
Take your car's ignition key(or a door key if you have a proximity key), and after you get out, tap the car with it. If it sparks, you won't be the point of exit, the key will, and it won't hurt.
I discovered this when I put a key in a deadbolt and it sparked, though I didn't feel it. Works for doorknobs too.
Who is here after uncountable shocks by car door?🤣🤣
Me😂 🙋🏻♂️
Me my truck does it every time at night i can see the spark
Me too 😂😂
Here
A can of Static Guard is great!
Haha. I used to have a car that shocked me every single time I got out. The shock didn't really hurt, but the bad part was KNOWING it was about to happen. I used to park that car and for a few seconds before getting out I would sit there like "Ooooooohhhhhh dammit" :(
Haha i brought a 99 honda crv and it gets me every time i shut the door behind me. What fuse do i remove?? Lol
I only got shocked once! When I was with my cousin and I was charging my tablet and even was my cousin then he accidently touched my leg and we got shocked
My Mitsubishi outlander sport does the same thing
I literally do that 😂
Exactly... I was looking for solutions ... I was doing the same thing 🤣🤣🤣
My dad used to carry a key when he was touching a door so the key would get the shock, not him when he touched something metallic, like a doorknob or a gate. Works like a charm ;)
Lol xd life hacks
I do that too!!
Don't do that, in the event a shock ever happens and fries the chip in the key...
I always plan to do it, but I forget every time
I once worked in a building where the combination of the carpet and my shoes caused a shock every time I touched metal, so I would touch everything with a key first. People laughed at me, until I walked up to them and touched them with my key.
what to do when in winter you go for groceries and after dragging the shopping cart in superstore when you touch any metal stand or metal post you get same shock....even though shopping carts are mostly metal made and you are touching them during shopping but when you touch any other metal stand, display, pole or post in store or outside you get this shock......what to do for that?...........i think its same situation as you described but different scenario.
I experienced that. I used to put drawing-pins in the heels of my shoes, so I was slowly discharging into the carpet all the time.
The shopping cart has rubber wheels, so it builds up a charge. Hospital trolleys have conductive wheels to avoid that, you will see them, coloured yellow.
This should be a… well not serial killer… maybe a horror character “key shock” or “shock key”
Alternate clickbait title: This girl simply got out of her car. What happens next is SHOCKING!!
you sir, won the comment battle.
Lol I get it
😅😅
😂 nice!
It technically isn't clickbait though if you think about it 😂
Great video Dianna!
Nice comment Jabrils
@Petr Toman ikrrrrr
I'm so glad i found this channel. I've been a physics "enthusiast" since highscool and now being in my thirties i still love this kind of videos.
I'm going to show the mirror video to my niece, it's going to "flip" her mind. Keep up the good work.
2:47 for quick answer. Whole video is good though.
Your tip on getting discharged when getting down from car was legit..
Thanks..saved me from loads of shocks
I love the feeling of static shock. I will purposely shock myself at work and at home. When I get shocked, I get the ASMR tingles in my head. It feels so good!
Great car tip. Mystery solved! You have made my life less painful now that I know how to avoid shocks. Thank you.
Thank you so much for explaining this 😁🤗. Three days now without a shock from the car ❤️
Thanks for the video. Another easy way to not get shocked leaving a car is to cover your seat with cotton fabric (assuming you are usually wearing cotton). It's the combination of different materials that creates the charge separation, so if seat and clothes are the same fabric, no charge builds up.
Also, to make your hair stand up better with a VDG generator, here are two tricks I've found: (based on doing it hundreds of times with students)
- Dampening your hair with a spray bottle makes it work a lot better (yes, counter-intuitive)
- Standing on a plastic stool to insulate you from the ground is super important too.
It's worth mentioning that with all but the largest static shocks the only reason you feel them is due to the heat of the spark against your skin. In other words, the static discharge is causing you a very localised burn. This is the reason you don't feel a static shock if you touch the car door (or door handle, or metal banister) with your keys: you are isolated from the heat of the spark.
I'm going to try this because even if I put my hand on the metal of my car while getting out I still feel the static it's just not coming as one big shock but it's still super uncomfortable to me. 😭
I get shocked every single time I get out of my car unless it’s raining out and I’m tired of it. I’m gonna try it right now and see if it works I have a feeling it’s because I have fabric seats and I slide out of my vehicle cause it’s an SUV.
It worked. I held onto the side of my car when I exited. Thank you very much.
Another solution is to never go outside, or move! Easy peasy!
no its not a solution
@@hafsakhalil7458 it is
Earth belt
You mean Corona?
you're 5 years too early
In the early 60's auto parts stores sold a strap the looped around your rear axle tube and draged and bounced along the ground discharging the car's static electricity.for this particular problem.
Nope nope nope, this is not entirely true. The reason you get zapped by your car most of the time is NOT due to friction between you and the car seat. It is due to the friction of the air against the car itself which charges the car body. Engineers already SOLVED this problem: carbon black in the tires. The carbon in the tires usually is conductive enough to discharge whatever charge builds up during driving. However, when the electrical resistance of your tires is too high, or if you have very old, non-carbonized tires, the body of your car can build up an amazing amount of charge. The instant your feet hit the ground, they are at earth potential. If you then touch the car: it will discharge through you.
Anyway: for anyone who has problems with getting zapped by their car: you can buy special rubber flaps with steel wire inside that drag over the road, called grounding straps, thus creating a nice grounding point. It will still be possible to get zapped by your car due to friction on your car seat, but that should be a very minor issue.
Also: if you get shocked by your car from friction between you and the seat, you should be able to shock yourself when you are inside the car and charge yourself up by wiggling heavily in your seat. If you're only able to shock yourself when your feet touch the ground: you need a ground strap.
+Physics Girl: I think you didn't do the story justice by not including the air friction explanation, as it is far more likely. Also: the styrofoam on top of the Van De Graaff is charged by electrostatic induction.
+LReBe7
Dude! You are actually ryt! But i want you to watch this video again!
And apparently she is wearing a footwear which is an insulator and so the shock experienced in THIS CASE is because of the friction between you and the seat!
SO +Physics Girl is ryt!
Akshaya Ravi
Of course her footwear is an insulator, but when dealing with static electricity that can shock you, were talking about several kilovolts. Obviously the power is very small, otherwise it would kill you, but the electrical potential is extremely high(it wouldn't be able to spark across a gap if it weren't so high). But the insulation of her soles doesn't matter much, as long as the spark can bridge the gap, there will be current.
The paint on the car is also an insulator, but the car still shocked her. Insulators have a high resistance, not infinite resistance. And all must obey Ohm's law. Your point is not proven.
The only way I would consider believing this theory of getting zapped because the friction of getting out of the seat, is by seeing someone step out of the car onto a glass plate or a plastic stool and then touch the car. Or even better: when I see someone fidgeting violently in their seat and touching the car body while they're still inside the car.
I want to eliminate the ground potential from the equation before I prefer the much less energetic source of static electricity(getting out of your seat) over the much more energetic source(friction from the air). Occam's razor.
+LReBe7
puff...!
brainy u r! no comments!
Nice explanation. But tell me one thing. Can you explain why she didn't feel any shock in the last minutes of her video? If she was charged and the car wasn't, then her explanation makes sense. Because, she prevented to create a big gap. But, if you said that the car became charged by the air friction, then can we say that she was faking that part? Because there was no way that she could reduce the gap between the car's and her's as the car had been charged so big.
+Muhammad Ichsan I would assume that was faked, because it doesn't look like your typical dry winter day. I can't know for sure, Physics Girl will have to tell us herself.
+Physics Girl The touching-the-car-metal-before-stepping-out trick works often, but sometimes if the car itself is charged, it could discharge through your toes to ground. Have you ever had this? Cool demo with the styrofoam plate, btw - a useful principle for keeping particulate-dust off (plastic) workpieces while e.g. laser-machining.
+Aditya Mehendale
it WILL discharge through your toes, but much slower because the shoe acts as a resistance and you wouldn't feel it. :)
+sbraz Actually, if your shoes *were* conducting (just like holding a large metallic key) you wouldn't feel the zap. "Regular" shoes, on the other hand, are insulating, and while this will increase the breakdown-voltage by a lot, it is still comparable to the breakdown voltage in air. To turn your argument around: If you were wearing a pair of (insulating) rubber gloves, would you not feel the zap while stepping out of the car? Hm, we really need to try this out sometime...
Aditya Mehendale the problem experimenting with this is being able to tell for sure if i'm about to be zapped or not. XD
Getting shocked on touching Car Door is easy *_but acting normal the moment you get shocked in public is the problem_*
That's why I used to asked my friends to open the door for me..and see if they get electocuted first😂
It's always funny when I'm swatting at my door like a cat to make the shock quicker haha
Science is so much funner when you get unexpected results. Because that means that more is happening then meets the eye and you are compelled to figure out exactly what is REALLY happening.
Ah, thank you very much for the tip, I fear it every time I get out of a car !
To Physics girl i am a disabled person (wheelchair) with a normal education . I was really bad at science and I did not like it, however your videos have generated a certain amount of interest and you deserve all the praise you get. There should be more people like you in the world. You are far better than anything that is on TV today and many people can benefitt from your knowledge and expierance. Just a thought for a future video matbe you can do one on how physics csn hrlp disabled people live their lives.
I've never been shocked getting out of a car before, so ironically this video has made me resolve to try and get shocked doing so.
I love getting shocks when getting out of the car, it makes me feel so ALIVE!
BDSM :3
Yeah the pain and sadness keeps me going
Menace to society
Makes you feel like Palpatine. "Unlimited power!"
I get shocked nonstop in the winter months. I wish it were a superpower BUT it's annoying. People think I'm crazy but when I go to open doors I smack them with the back of my hand first or just use my elbow. When I take my jacket off at home I'll smack the wall a few time or get my kids to high five me REAL hard. I broke my toe once from kicking a wall after a static shocked angered me to hulk status. Yep. Static. The struggle is real. Thankfully I've figured out bizarre methods to minimize it. :)
Maybe there's an element of your clothes or your shoes that contributes to your predicament. And this is why i don't wear cheap jackets or cheap shoes in winter.
what's your bizarre method?! That might help me.
2:45. Touch the metal car frame as soon as you open the door and before you start getting out of the car. Just saved you 4min and 10 sec - you're welcome.
In the reflection on the generator you can see the whole room, but not the camera. Isn't this weird? :)
Look at 1:50 carefully, you’ll get your answers
@@EbrahimMamawala Here in 2021 aye
This is good advice for people who fill up at self serve gas stations. Static charges have, on occasion, resulted in the ignition of gas fumes while pumping gas.
This is actually really important before you fill up at a gas station. If you are charged and cause a spark, you can ignite the fuel!
I used to work in a place that handled components with microchips. We had training to avoid causing damage with electrostatic discharge. Some of the training included films with scenes from gasoline stations where there had been fires caused by sparks igniting fuel.
The spark isn't anywhere near powerful enough to ignite it
@@ploperdung There have been studies of HUNDREDS of fires at gas stations and most of them are caused by women getting out of their vehicles after having gotten back inside WHILE FUELING. Yes, the tiniest spark can, in fact, ignite gasoline fumes, which may be invisibly swirling around you, and then you pull the nozzle from the tank without ALSO touching the car with your other hand (to keep the electrical charge gradient small).
Do you actually believe that? 🤔
that literally will not happen. Ever.
3:30 The launch of Apollo 12 in 1969 nearly came to disaster when, for some idiotic reason it was decided to launch the rocket in the rain, as there was no lightning in the area. However no one seemed to think about the fact that EVERY rainstorm leads to a large charge difference between the cloud and the ground. The voltage is usually not high enough to create lightning as the charge must be very high to pass through the 3000 to 5000 feet of air between the ground and the cloud.
When a bolt of lightning strikes it is so hot that it ionizes the air, making that column of air much more conductive. This then allows the cloud to discharge most of it's voltage which is why lightning tend to flicker.
In the rain storm that was over the launch pad at the time of launch the charge wasn't great enough to overcome the resistance of non-ionized air. But lightning isn't the only thing that can ionize air. A Saturn 5 rocket can to it as well. As soon as the rocket got close enough a bolt of lightning struck the rocket and followed the smoke trail to the launch pad TWICE. It was just pure luck that the only thing that happened was a bunch of circuit breakers were tripped, which the crew was quickly able to reset.
A good way to not ignite a fire when fueling your vehicle is to do the touch-the-metal trick when exiting EVERY time. Then you won't have an electric potential built when you go to put your hands by the fuel port, preventing a spark
A needed n helpful trick!
You have helped me enough I was thinking that maybe I got sick because every time when I get out of a car or when I want to touch something I was feeling shock I was even planning to find Doctor to ask about that issue but your video helped me enough I can't thank you enough
Thank you. I was getting tired of shocking the pump at the gas station. The display on the pump was actually going blank for about 5 seconds before coming back on. It was making me 5 seconds late to work, so yeah, thanks.
To avoid/minimize getting shocked by touching a doorknob, I hold the metal part of a key between my thumb and finger, then use that to touch the doorknob. The spark will leave the key, not my hand. If it's really cold and dry out, the noise and spark, combined with the anticipation of a _potential_ shock, still makes me jump a little, but at least the pain isn't there. :-)
+Chris Clark I do the exact same thing!
+Chris Clark I do this too. This way you can still see the spark and hear the pop without feeling it. It's pretty cool to see your own personal tiny lightning bolt.
+SergeofBIBEK ☺️
Stupid question but you did make sure to insulate yourself from ground at the end there right? Just asking because you didn't seem taller and most shoes will do just about nothing for that experiment.
I love how you explain it with your hands.
Last time i was getting shock when hug a girl. Because i realized her boyfriend standing while starring at me
A way to stop a shock from doorknobs, etc. is to touch them with something metallic, eg. a key, first. The ionisation happens at the tip of the key not your skin.
So... How do I prevent getting shocked when I'm pushing around a shopping cart??
Hopefully, the store designers selected flooring material and shopping cart wheel material to be compatible, so not to cause shopping carts to build up electrostatic charge. But, not always. I heard about one store that had a terrible opening week because the designers didn't do that. The flooring material and shopping cart wheels were a great combo for generating static charge.
I used to just think it was just me that had this problem....
This is one of the BEST youtube channels!!
This is me. Every. Damn. Time.
+MrC0MPUT3R Used to happen to me, but I figured out the same cure as PG many years ago.
Thank God someone addressed this issue. Regards from a victim of this violent event so many times that I can't event remember now.
0:15 that's never happened to me. I've never been hugged... ='{
Thank you so much!! This CONSTANTLY happens to me whenever I get out of my car, and it really hurts. I thought it was just because I wear jeans and have cloth seats-yes, I know that's the basis of it. But this was so helpful in understanding why!
1. Did you maybe ground yourself while trying to get your hair get charged?
2. (Especially for the kids) hang a ping pong ball about 5-10 cm next to the van de graaf generator and see what happens. (You can paint the ball with graphite spray paint to make the surface conducting to amplify the effect, but it should work with a normal ping pong ball)
+Nyt Mare I actually threw ping pong balls at the VDG generator, and nothing happened. it was a really disappointing clip :)
+Physics Girl It should have bounced off really fast, maybe the contact was too short for a lot of charge to flow...
+Physics Girl The cool thing about letting it hang is that the ball gets attracted and then bounces off...
This is the first time ever for me to subscribe to a channel after watching only one video.
Your explanation is amazing.
I used to face that problem with my other car. I ended up just closing the door by pushing the window thus insulating myself from the chassis
Thanks
I end up pushing the window just like u but after that u will get sock if u touch other metal
ah you are the car in the parking lot with hand prints all over the driver side window....
In winter I always touch that galvanised door lock loop, visible at 2:33, with my keys or fingers as I slide out of the car. Getting zapped by the metal shelving at the supermarket is always hazardous as I always forget to take care, you're thinking about groceries, not static. Don't need a coat or jumper where I live.
just get out of your car and go up to your friends and touch them on the ear
Great video!
I remember reading that in gas stations ignition of vapors through these static induced sparks are much more common with young, fit people than with elders, for example, because the elders hold to the metal to support themselves, which grounds them. Younger, more fit people end up never grounding themselves before touching the vapor-rich tank opening: WHOOSH!
I deliver pizza and get shocked almost everytime I leave the car (and I leave the car a lot of times per night :( ). I hope your trick can help me! Thanks for the video ♪♫
+ViolettaSachra As long as you're not carrying the pizza when you put your hand on the car, which could end in a larger disaster.
+Physics Girl pizzaster!
Physics Girl Haha, I'll try to think of that :P
You have a cool job
+ViolettaSachra It's sliding across the car seat toward the door that creates the charge. To bleed off the charge while it is trying to build up, you should place your (left) hand on the metal edge of the open door before you step out onto the ground. This should work every time.
Awesome Dianna ! Thanks for the trick. I'm an engineer and I know equations of Maxwell but I have never solved my problems of shocks after car exiting with it. I just thought that I was a bad insulator. Science is so fun, I really like your channel, keep it up !
No more kicking the car's door to close anymore ... Thank you
This used to happen to me after I bought my first car. I never happened with the other cars I drove, probably because those all had leather seats. I eventually learned the trick of holding the door as I got out, but before that my method was just grabbing the door hard enough that the pain from that would cover up the pain of the shock.
Anti-static keychain is 5 bucks on Amazon. Plus it's fancy! Lot's of carpets, door-knobs and cold weathers where I live...
what makes it work? does it work? seems like a gag.
Me: *Watches video*.
Brain: Could you make a vehicle fly using static electricity?
How to stop yourself from getting shocked while getting out of the car
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Take the bus
+Ian Cloyd Ha ha ha. Good one, boss.
+Ian Cloyd She will make the video of How to not get shocked exiting a bus. When it be made, and people say:
How to stop yourself from getting shocked exiting a bus
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Go by bike
She will make the video: How to not get shocked exiting a bike. And it will be forever happening. Some day she will make the video: How to not get shocked exiting a UFO, and in the "playlists" section, there will be a playlist called "How to not get shocked exiting a vehicle".
+Ian Cloyd -- Incorrect. That's how to avoid getting out of the car by not getting in in the first place. Presumably, that's one of the conditions of the problem, being in the car. IOW, the more detailed wording of the question would be, "If one gets shocked while exiting a car, how does one avoid the shock in this circumstance?"
Furthermore, if you took the bus, you would have a host of new problems, avoiding the police harassing you while you wait, avoiding the local punks from robbing you while you wait, avoiding the bus driver from being rude to you (or throwing you off) for being a rider, etc. Obviously, you don't have experience riding a bus in an American city like Kansas City.
lol
@@Nehmo Well said!
I just got shocked a couple times, and now I know how to void it! Thanks lady
This has never happenned to me.
same I didn't even know it was possible
my mom's explorer and my 94 Accord both have leather seats so yeah same here (in surprised a cheap Honda from the 90's came with leather tbh
It only happens to "positive" people.
It happened to me everytime
Happens to me all day everyday
thanks a ton dear. i was totally frustrated with this electric shock i use to get every time when i use get out of my car. ur tricks really helped me
You must be very popular with kids
Even more popular with teenagers though (>_>)
And even more popular with creepy old men.
+sleazybtd Her videos also seem to attrect self righteous SWJs.
+sleazybtd Yeah not sure how creepy I am, but I seriously got it for smart chicks.
Why would they attract sjw's?
I do this all the time, just hold onto the door as you step out and you feel nothing.
Leather seats. Problem solved.
Ciber X Gaming my seats are leather and I get shocked every time I get out of my car 😢
said like an arrogant rich guy who doesnt live in cold or hot areas (or never parks on the street).
I actually figured out the car trick myself a while back since I tend to get shocked a lot. Although, it is nice to see the science instead of just deductive reasoning.
- why are you rubbing yourself with that?
- cos wanna leave my car, men!
XD
Part of the shock comes from the distance of the drive too. Just like rubbing a balloon against hair or clothes, rubber tires rubbing the road will pick up some charge and can transfer it to the outside of the car which acts like a Faraday cage if not separately grounded. I've been told that semi-truck tires have metal flecks in the outer tire to help ground them so charge doesn't build up as much. Also, a lot of grocery stores now have carts with little changes dangling off of one wheel to help ground them.
That PBS opening gives me a headache.
Thanks a lot. Now I am happy that I don't need to get shock anymore following this simple technique.
As a Floridian, this happens? xD
+iVulgarThrust What's funny is that I grew up in Hawaii, which is like Florida in car-shocking. So when I moved to dryer places, I got WAY more bothered by this than people who were used to it. Oh it happens. I hate it.
+Physics Girl Same here! Growing up in Texas I never recall getting shocked in winter, moved up north and now I loathe winter! I always keep a key or some other piece of metal in my hand to discharge my self.
I was like I guess this just doesn't happen to me. Then I read this comment and was like.. oh. that's why, cause I live in the South.
Handy tip.
If you suspect you are charged but you need to quickly go out that door.
Hold a key tightly and touch the knob with it first. If there's a discharge it will spread over the surface of your fingers that is touching the key eliminating the single point arc to your skin that causes you pain.
She’s smart and hot . . .
there's something cool about these videos that keep me coming back. thanks for that! and thanks for helping me to procrastinate
Honestly, I finally remembered to buy Dryer Sheets today simply because I got shocked while getting out of my truck on my way into the store to purchase batteries; because obviously I needed more electricity. ;-) I am thankful to finally have been shown the pre-grounding technique , it seems so obvious now. I have used dryer sheets on my cloths seats and that coupled with actually using them on my cloths in the dryer does dramatically damper the effect. Cool vid. Thanx!
rubbing a dryer sheet on the car seat does help. I just put my left calf against the car when getting out. Winter gloves insulate against electricity as well as the cold.
When I lived up in the north, during winter times, static electricity is just shockingly frequent.
Getting out of the car and ground myself became a habit i developed.
The other thing I found useful is to get a humidifier at home. By making the air humid, it helps discharge the static when you take off a sweater or get up from a plastic chair, etcs.
3:20 that won't shock you unless you are somehow connected to ground, and even if it does shock you the fuse will instantly blow or if not the RCD will trigger.
I'm a mailman and get shocked 100 times a day getting out of my truck in the winter. No longer!! Thank you!!!!
So... leave fingerprints on my car or get shocked. Not sure which is worse lol.
Thank you for the tips ! Holding the door whilst leaving the car works great ! Btw so nice to see a woman who doesn't need to flaunt herself to get views 🙏
I'm so glad I was able to watch this video.i am constantly getting shocked when I get out of the car.so I was determined to find a solution.so thank you,I know what to do now
I always touch the car's window pane first upon disembarking and then touch the metal body to close the door, and that has solved the shock problem for me. I do not know the physics behind it, but it works for me. The same on trains: glass first, metal second.
Wonderful video, Dianna! I hope that you are getting plenty of static electricity shock-free hugs from your friends and family. 🙏🏻
This video is very informative. I looked for an answer w/ my experience last night. The room is so cold because of the AC, i put my blanket with me already then i start scratching my pants inside. When I was about to change my blanket to bigger one static starts, it's pretty amazing!!! It's light green like tiny lightning that buzzes all over the blanket! When I was about to through the blanket away (for i thought it's because of the blanket) I saw all of my finger tips having those tiny lightning in them!!! Love it!
I'm getting shocked by the car all the time lately and it's really hot these days. It's also very dry, so maybe humidity is the most important factor.
Awesome!!! Thanks a lot for this very practical explanation! I hated being shocked every time leaving the car! No shocks anymore when leaving the car!!!
I've taken some shocks from my car that were way beyond just a little static snap. Some of the shocks I have gotten from my car were enough to cause the tips of my fingers to hurt and go numb for a few seconds, and the snap was /very/ loud. I will have to try the grounding trick.
You can also just knock your knuckles against the outside of the car. Placing your knuckle quickly on the car (not slowly and cautiously) and the broader surface contact area of the knuckle both dissipate the discharge so you don't feel it or hear it as a spark. Also your knuckles are less sensitive than your palm or finger tips, further reducing any sensation.
I used to face the same problem, many a times I dropped things like mobile, camera, etc when I get shock while getting out of car. what I do to avoid is to ground myself, as soon as I get out if I wear sandals, I just turn my leg and slightly touch the ground with my toes , if I am wearing shoes, then I used the technique mentioned by this girl or sometimes touch objects on ground with my hand.
This video saved me from a lot of mini heart attacks and embarrassment... Thank you physics girl...
It happens to me every single time I get out of the car!!! Thanks Diana.
You are amazing! I love your vids. (Simple retired BSME...) The future is brighter because of people like you.
Finally understood why I get electric shocks during winter season :)
I got shocked four times today getting out of the car. Loved this video, thanks!
You didn't mention the Faraday Cage! Both the Van De Graff generator and the car are Faraday cages. Any excess charge in a hollow conductor jumps to the surface, leaving the interior neutral. Thats what makes the VDG generator work.
When you get out of a car without touching it, the charge on your body is free to have a different charge than the car, which leads to a shock. Touching the car brings the two charges to equillibrium, preventing the shock.
As you leave the car, your body moves from inside to outside the Faraday cage. Your skin gradually becomes part of the exterior of the Faraday cage. In really dry weather, you can feel the charge move onto you as you get out.