CASCADE, Mich. — Looking for a fun activity to do at home with your kids? This science experiment is fun for all ages and teaches static electricity during the wintertime! Meteorologist Isabella ...

Lightning is the simple process of balancing negatively and positively charged electrons in the atmosphere. We can do this on a small scale with electric shock on your finger when you and another ...

As humans we often think we have a pretty good handle on the basics of the way the world works, from an intuition about gravity good enough to let us walk around, play baseball, and land spacecraft on ...

This experiment demonstrates how static electricity can “remember” previous charges, revealing surprising properties of electrical interactions and material behavior. Leaked emails about removal of ...

If you enjoyed this article, I’d like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in ...

Static electricity shocks are more common in the winter because of the season's dry air. Friction between materials, like socks on carpet, builds up a static charge in low humidity. Using a humidifier ...

Rub a balloon on your hair and the balloon typically picks up a negative electric charge, while your hair goes positive. But a new study shows that the charge an object picks up can depend on its ...

Rubbing two balloons together leads George to a shocking discovery. If you rub two identical balloons together, they both pick up a static charge. This strange and unexpected behavior has been ...