Blog 9: "It's Electric!"

Last week I got some new pajamas.  I got a long sleeve t-shirt and some silk shorts.  They are very comfortable and I sleep with them on every night.  When I wake up and go to the bathroom in the morning to change, I have to take off my shorts.  I noticed a couple of days ago that when I took off my shorts they made a crackling sound and I felt the hair on my legs move.  This was because my legs and my shorts became charged by friction during the night.  The charge that was created was due to skin and hair's tendency to become positively charged and although silk also becomes positively charged, its magnitude is very smaller.  When I took my shorts off, the extra electrons on the shorts transferred to my legs.  The movement caused the sound of the sparks and the extra electrons in my leg caused my hairs to stand on end.