If we rub wax and wool together, we “pump” electrons away from their normal “levels,” creating a condition where a force exists between the wax and wool, as the electrons seek to re-establish their former positions (and balance within their respective atoms). If the water is pumped to an even higher level, it will take even more energy to do so, thus more energy will be stored, and more energy released if the water is allowed to flow through a pipe back down again:Įlectrons are not much different. It takes energy to pump that water from the low-level pond to the high-level reservoir, and the movement of water through the piping back down to its original level constitutes a releasing of energy stored from the previous pumping. If a suitable pipe is run from the reservoir back to the pond, water will flow under the influence of gravity down from the reservoir, through the pipe: The influence of gravity on the water in the reservoir creates a force that attempts to move the water down to the lower level again. This energy is not unlike the energy stored in a high reservoir of water that has been pumped from a lower-level pond: The electric charge formed between these two materials by rubbing them together serves to store a certain amount of energy. Now that a conductor bridges the insulating gap, however, the force will provoke electrons to flow in a uniform direction through the wire, if only momentarily, until the charge in that area neutralizes and the force between the wax and wool diminishes. With no path for electrons to flow from the wax to the wool, all this force can do is attract the two objects together.
The imbalance of electrons between the atoms in the wax and the atoms in the wool creates a force between the two materials. If a conductive wire is placed between the charged wax and wool, electrons will flow through it, as some of the excess electrons in the wax rush through the wire to get back to the wool, filling the deficiency of electrons there: This imbalance manifests itself as an attractive force between the two objects: If we take the examples of wax and wool which have been rubbed together, we find that the surplus of electrons in the wax (negative charge) and the deficit of electrons in the wool (positive charge) creates an imbalance of charge between them.
With electrons, this force is the same force at work in static electricity: the force produced by an imbalance of electric charge. Just like marbles in a tube or water in a pipe, it takes some kind of influencing force to initiate flow. As was previously mentioned, we need more than just a continuous path (i.e., a circuit) before a continuous flow of charge will occur: we also need some means to push these charge carriers around the circuit.
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