Winter can be shocking — literally! The minute the temperature dips, anything we touch can give us a shock and our hair starts to fly off in all directions! We can actually see sparks fly when we touch a doorknob.

This isn’t magic, it is simply static electricity that seems to be in the air and everywhere due to the cold, dry weather. Static electricity is explained as “the build-up of electric charge on the surface of objects when electrons move from one surface to another through contact.”

If the objects are both insulators, meaning they don’t allow the free flow of electrical current, the objects will build up an electrical charge. One object will become positively charged because it lost electrons and one will have a negative charge because it gained electrons.

When one of the charged objects touches a conductor, like a piece of metal, the charge will flow to the conductor to neutralise itself, causing a static shock. This is why when we touch doorknobs, metal surfaces or even shake hands, we get a shock.

Why dryness makes static electricity worst?

Air is an insulator, which means that electrons don’t pass through it easily. When there are water vapours to the air, or what we call humidity, the water molecules allow electrons to pass more freely. And this is why in summer and humid weather, we don’t get static shocks.

In winter, the air is dry and when heaters are used in homes and cars, the air loses more moisture. To keep warm, people wear layers of clothing, particular woollen ones, so when there is more rubbing of surfaces against each other, the electrons separate. As the air doesn’t have water vapours to allow the electrons to pass through the room more easily, the objects, and our bodies, accumulate more positive or negative charges.

Common culprits of static shock

There are lots of insulators around us and the extra woollen clothes we wear keep us warm but also charged! Woollen carpets, and velvet and woollen furniture coverings are good insulators but real bad for you to come in contact with in winter.

Whenever two different insulating surfaces touch each other, opposite charges found within the two surfaces become separated. So if you walk on a wool or nylon carpet wearing shoes, especially rubber ones, the shoe soles will rub against the insulating material of the rug, leading to the separation of the positive and negative charges, thus creating imbalanced electric charges on the sole of your shoes.

You can’t get rid of the charge because of the insulating soles of your shoes, so it moves up to your body and when you touch someone or something ... zap!

What can we prevent this

The easiest way to prevent static shocks is to minimise the amount of charge building up on your body and clothes.

Humidify the air: Try to increase the humidity of the room, either by using a humidifier or keep a bowl of water, preferably warm, to raise the amount of moisture in the air. That will allow electrons to pass throughout the room more easily, so that they will not build up as much.

You can even use the lightest of water spray on clothes that are clinging and giving off sparks and to calm flying hair.

Avoid wool: Cotton is an electrically neutral fabric so try to wear that instead of too much wool. A cotton hoodie and cotton socks make for safer choices.

Also be mindful of the chair or sofa surface that you sit on as woollen and velvety materials will get your charged up.

Avoid rubber-soled shoes: Leather-soled shoes don’t gather as many electrons as rubber-soled shoes, so stick to footwear that are not so ‘shocking’.

Carry metal: Whenever you fear getting zapped, carry a metal object such as a key, and hold them firmly and use them to touch any large metal objects such as doorknobs and car doors. There will be a spark when the metal is touched, but it will be on the metal object you are holding and not your finger. Once the spark has occurred, you can now touch the metal door handle or object without a problem because the extra charge from your body has been released.

Published in Dawn, Young World, February 10th, 2018