Recent content by spareine

Agreed Maybe the manufacturers found out that antistatic seats were low on the priority list of buyers

Then my diagram was not clear enough. The capacitors C1 and C2 together are a stack of three electrically charged layers: (A) the lower surface of the body, including the trousers, negatively charged due to the triboelectric effect; (B) upper surface of the seat cushion, positively charged due...

I agree it is a good exercise to compare the person to an electrophorus, and to consider the possibility of touching ground while seated, theoretically. However, I am not sure why you refrained from estimating the magnitude of your effect of touching ground while seated. See the figure. Suppose...

From a physics point of view the straps must have been useless. Electrostatic charge on the car cannot affect the passengers. The car is a Faraday cage, so charge would move to the outside, and inside there would be no electric field. In addition, since the 1950's-1960's car tires are made...

BTW, a convenient guinea pig model for the bird on the power line, with its capacitive current, is a person on insulating shoes, touching a neon screwdriver test light. The current that causes the neon lamp to light, is equal to the capacitive current flowing through the person's body. Without...

Maybe this schematic is clearer. Capacitor C2 is the air gap between feet and power line before landing. After touchdown, it is just an ohmic contact. The only importance of C2 is that its air gap is the location of the electric arc. My thought was the bird may be more sensitive to a current in...

Yes, in my diagram the helicopter can be replaced by the bird just before touching the wire. The part of the bird closest to the power line, its feet, is one plate of capacitor C2, and the part that is furthest from the power line, say its head, is one plate of capacitor C2. When AC current is...

Birds seem to avoid transmission lines above 50 kV. The ground wires, which do not carry current, except in the event of a lightning strike, need to be distinguished from the power transmission lines. The ground wires are the ones that are not separated from the pylon by a stack of insulating...

Is the mobile forum app Tapatalk being abandoned as well? Since about a week, I can't access Physics Forums via Tapatalk anymore.

The data in the map seems to come from a Lunar Impact Flash Locations study that is part of NASA’s Lunar Impact Monitoring Program (Link to report; see fig 2 and 18) The report states in its methodology section that "no observations were made near the poles or along the line of 0° longitude"...

According to a report, 10% of the electrical energy supplied by the substation is dissipated in the resistance of the overhead lines in my area. Increasing the voltage from 1.5 kV to 3 kV would reduce the loss to 2.5%. Losses in the rails are never mentioned, apparently it is negligable. It is...

Ok, we are not going to agree. Maybe our carpets and conditions are different, that is another way out.

Direct observation with an electroscope is not 'justification'. Which instrument would you use to demonstrate your position?

My electroscope thinks the question which you are ignoring is: did those people rise from a chair before walking over the carpet.

My experience is direct observation from an electroscope connected to the hand, so I am not convinced by your statement. If you have an electroscope, you might try it yourself.