The key to averting electric shocks.

This has been a very hectic week and I'm pretty glad it's over. Friday is a fairly light day for me, as I only have classes till noon. It is good to get back to college after spring break. Nice to return to the quiet of Troy. Nice to look up at a clear sky again without additionally noticing upto ten airplanes piercing it in all directions.

They say spring has arrived, but it is still very cold here, and the temperature only goes as high as 6°C during the day. It doesn't snow anymore, save for very mild flakes sometimes. I still require my warm coat, which I wear over my T shirt. This combination suffices fairly well, as buildings here are internally heated. But that isn't really what I planned to write about.

The inside of my coat, with all the fleece it has, leaves my skin with quite a high amount of positive charge, which entails quite a high electrostatic potential. Now, when two bodies are at different electrostatic potentials, medium permitting, charge flows between the two bodies till their potentials become the same. And flow of charges is what constitutes electric current. And when this current flows through the human body, the body is commonly said to have been 'shocked'.

Now, when I was young, and oblivious to the dangers of electric current passing through my body, I would marvel at how a dry comb could attract hair and bits of paper. During the first two days of this week, I got a shock at least seven times, in completely isolated incidents after taking my coat off. Sometimes it was the metallic frame of my bed, at others, it was the doorknob, and the rest, it was the darned bed again. It felt rather silly. I could tell that I had a lot of static on me, but wasn't able to combat the impending shock.

That is when I decided to do something about this offending static charge. I found the key to my predicament - my room key. I realised, that if I held onto it while I took off my coat, and after that, lightly have it touch against my bed/doorknob/bed, I could discharge myself quite efficiently without getting a shock. It went very well yesterday and today, as in, I would rather conveniently hold my key while taking off my coat at the beginning of class and then have it touch the chair, coercing somewhat mild sparks, and then casually slip in a macho one-liner followed by a quick wink, if my neighbor were a she.

It looks pretty cool too when it comes off, that is. Try it.

-Rishi-