Have you ever touched a door knob as you are about to open a door or perhaps touched the door of an automobile as you are about to enter it and received a “shock” that startled you, maybe even hurt a little bit? If so, then you have come in contact with static electricity. Movement creates friction that causes free electrons to collect in abundance on some objects. For example: Rubbing a glass rod with a silk handkerchief will give up electrons to the silk, creating a negative charge to the silk and a positive charge to the rod. Sometimes, just walking across a rug in a room can create a charge of static electricity in your body that will startle you when you touch something.
The microcircuits in the microchips used in electronic devices such as computers are very sensitive to static electricity. There is a huge industry that has evolved to cope with this problem. Static electricity is caused by a buildup of electrons in an object. It occurs when the buildup of free electrons in the object balance with another object. A static discharge from small objects has very little current and will only startle you if you touch them. If the object is very large, perhaps an airplane that has just landed from a trip in the sky, the static electricity buildup can be great enough to harm. Aircraft ground crews attach a special “grounding cable” to the aircraft before touching it after it parks. They want to be sure that no spark occurs when they connect the refueling hose.
Lightning is a form of static electricity. However you must respect it, even fear it because it is very dangerous and harmful due to the very large amount of unbalanced electrons and very high difference of potentials that build up by the atmospheric friction of wind in the air. The brief but high current and voltage in a lightning strike can kill you should you become part of its discharge path.
The Dallas Morning News of September 25, 2004 has a sad story about a young football player having been killed by a lightning strike on the practice field. Some of his fellow players were also injured by the strike. The article says it happened during a late afternoon rain shower.
Electricity is a part of nature that few people take the time to understand. Many take it for granted because we grew up with it. Make no mistake, respect it because electricity is pure energy that will never respect you should you become a part of its path to ground.