Static electricity often just seems like an everyday annoyance when a wool sweater crackles as you pull it off, or when a doorknob delivers an unexpected zap. Regardless, the phenomenon is much more ...

Sebastian Deffner is affiliated with the Department of Physics at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). Static electricity is a ubiquitous part of everyday life. It’s all around us, ...

You might have heard of electrets being used in microphones, but do you know what they are? Electrets produce a semi-permanent static electric field, similar to how a magnet produces a magnetic field.