Physics Question

(a)What is accumulated on the body of the car?How does it occur?
You are one surface, and the car seat is the other. The contact between your clothes and the seat's surface causes the electrical charges within atoms of the material to transfer between the surfaces. One surface ends up with more negative charges than positive, and has a negative charge-imbalance. The other surface has fewer negatives than positives, so it has a positive imbalance. While driving, you're rubbing your entire back, bottom and legs on the car seat surface. Nothing happens as long as you remain seated.

(b)Explain why the driver gets an electric shock?
However, when you open the car door and step outside, you take just one polarity of charge along with you, while the car seat has the opposite polarity. At the same time, the charged-up car seat causes the whole car to become charged. As you step out of the car, the voltage between your body and the car builds up, to 10,000 or possibly even 20,000 volts. Your shoes are probably acting as insulators, so the charge has no opportunity to ground. You touch the car door and get zapped. The opposite polarities rejoin by leaping through the air while giving you a tiny, deep burn on your fingertips.

(c)Suggest how this can be prevented.
- Maintain contact with the metal part of the car door while you are getting out of the car.
- Rub the seats with a Fabric Softener Sheet. (Research tested and proved, re-apply approximately every 3/4 weeks).
- You could try driving completely naked. Going out in public unclothed is not recommended though, and liable to get you arrested. It's doubtful the police would believe you're trying to prevent static build-up.
- Electronics stores sell anti-static products but they are expensive.
- Make Your Own Anti-Static Spray --- Take an empty spray bottle (such as a window cleaner bottle) and pour in a small amount of fabric conditioner. Fill the bottle with water. The mixture should be about 30:1. Spray the car seats (furniture and/or carpets) and allow to dry. Reapply as necessary.
Things To Try at Home and Workplaces
- Moisturise your skin. Use hand lotion regularly.
- Some people advocate the wearing of a ring made from bamboo, but there appears to be no scientific or rational reason for this as bamboo is an insulator.
- Wear a metal thimble. It should be in contact with your skin.
- Wear leather shoes.
- Carry a coin and use this to touch metal surfaces.
- Try rapping your knuckles on the surface you usually get a spark from, rather than touching it with your much-more-sensitive fingertips.
- If you keep getting zapped at work, or if you keep crashing your computer, consider wearing a wrist strap with a wire connected to an electrical 'ground'. While you wear a grounded wrist-strap, your body cannot charge up at all.
I hope this can help with your understanding. =)