discharging static electricity

[RenaissanceBiker]

The other day I stopped in a Wal-Mart on my way to work. They aren't very busy at that time and the greeter was a nice older lady. On my way out she said she would take my cart and put it away. I thanked her and removed the two bags I had in it. She then reached for it and kind of slapped it with her fingertips before grasping it. She said she hates getting shocked by the static. I told her about a trick I use this time of year (winter) and I just thought I would share it here in case others had not heard of it.

I also hate getting shocked by static from doorknobs or other grounded items. I figure that the discharge of static electricity is inevitable but how I perceive it is up to me. I began to touch things with the back of the first knuckle of my index finger before grasping them. You still discharge the same amount of static electricity but there are much fewer nerve endings on the back of your knuckle than there are on the tip of your finger. That means you hardly even feel the shock. I would also sometimes get shocked as I got out of my car because sliding across the seat generates static electricity. To discharge it with little or no pain, I made sure the back of my leg touched the metal car body on my way out. You may not be able to reduce the amount of static electricity discharged, but you can choose to discharge it through a less sensitive body part.

 

[bruto]

I usually use a car key or a coin.

 

[alfaniner]

In the winter I get it almost every time I get out of my car. I use the side of my palm to touch the door jamb.

 

[Mikemcc]

I was installing a major system in a lab once and they had coated the floor with a resin that caused big static build ups, we were getting plenty of nasty zaps. In the end I went down to radioshack and got a couple of earthing straps (the sort of thing that you use to earth yourself when soldering static-sensitive components onto PCBs). The static would discharge through the 1M resistor, stopped the zaps completely. In the end the customer had a new floor coating put down to stop the static build up.

 

[Jrrarglblarg]

I tap my wedding ring against metal.

 

[bjornart]

I often do the totally useless slapping metal things when they've zapped me in the past, but when dealing with the van der graaf generator I always have my keys handy and do all discharging through them. Saves me from swearing in front of the students like I did the first time with the aparatus.

 

[Mikemcc]

Using metal just gives it a good conductive path to you, unless the connection is poor enough to add a significant resistanec into the path. Hence my use of a 1M earthing strap

 

[bjornart]

Using metal just gives it a good conductive path to you, unless the connection is poor enough to add a significant resistanec into the path. Hence my use of a 1M earthing strap

All I worry about is the pain. A spark to/from a single point on my finger is painful, a similar quantity of charge conducted by the key to/from an enormously larger area of skin isn't. A superconducting key would work as well.

 

[Tiktaalik]

Unfortunately, I almost always discharge my static electricity into one of my dogs, and vice-versa.

 

[Jim_MDP]

I'll try to remember this RB. The dry desert air here is driving me nuts. I get zapped a couple dozen times a day in the RV.