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Profile America: National Static Electricity Day

January 9, 2016 7:15 PM·

NATIONAL STATIC ELECTRICITY DAY

Profile America — Saturday, January 9. If you feel a special, hair-raising electricity in the air today, well that’s no wonder — it’s National Static Electricity Day. Static electricity is the result of an imbalance between negative and positive charges in an object. These charges build up on the surface until they are discharged. This commonly happens when you shuffle about when the humidity is very low and then touch a conductor, such as a door handle or your pet’s wet nose. Static electricity has uses in air purifiers, photocopiers and bonding in the painting of automobiles, as well as sticking party balloons onto walls and ceilings. Generating and distributing more practical electricity is a $430 billion a year business for over 10,600 electric power establishments in the U.S.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

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Author: Michael Benjamin is a public affairs consultant and an editorial board member at The New York Post. He is a former contributing columnist to the NY Post, City and State NY and other publications. He is a former Member of the New York State Assembly (2003-2010) and once led the Bronx Board of Elections. Since leaving office, he has appeared as a commentator on TWC NY1, Bronxnet OPEN, Good Day NY, and Al Jazeera America. His columns and blog focus on corruption, government, education, politics, redistricting, nuclear energy and race. He holds a B.A. in political science from Syracuse University.