Static cling You pull your clothes from the dryer and find that they stick together....

Static cling You pull your clothes from the dryer and find that they stick together. You remove your coat and find that your skirt or pants sticks to your legs. Static cling like this can occur for two reasons. First, different types of atoms have greater or lesser affinity for additional electrons. When two different materials are rubbed together, the atoms with a greater electron affinity attract electrons from the material with a lesser electron affinity. Because of this, the substance that gains electrons becomes negatively charged and the substance that loses electrons becomes positively charged. The differently charged materials attract and stick together. Second, static cling can occur between charged and uncharged objects. For instance, you may notice that a sock removed from the dryer is attracted toward an uncharged sweater you are wearing. Or sometimes your skirt or pants sticks to your leg. This happens because the molecules in a charged piece of clothing cause the electric charge inside the molecules of the nearby uncharged objects to slightly redistribute (to become polarized) so that the unlike charge of the molecule moves closer to the charged object and is attracted more than the same molecular charge of the same sign, which is slightly farther away (see Figures 14.9b and c). Some people use fabric softeners to prevent static cling. These products coat cloth fibers with a thin layer of electrically conductive molecules, thus preventing buildup of static electricity. You can also use a metal clothes hanger to remove electric charge from already clean charged clothes. Brush the hanger on the inside of the garment from top to bottom. Shoes scuffing on different surfaces can also cause electric charge transfer. For that reason, hospital personnel wear special shoes in hospital operating rooms to avoid sparking that might ignite flammable gases in the room.

You remove electric charge from your clean slacks by rubbing a metal clothes hanger down the inside of the slacks. Which answer below represents the best explanation for why this works?

(a) The charge travels from the cloth to the metal to your hand through your body to the ground.

(b) The metal hanger absorbs all the charge.

(c) The metal causes tiny sparks that send the charge into the air.

(d) The metal provides charge to the cloth that neutralizes its charge.

(e) None of these answers is reasonable.