During winter, when touching the car door, occasionally I feel a tingling sensation and it seems like there’s an electric current running through my body.
Is the tingling sensation when opening a car door in winter caused by an electrical leakage? – 1
Not only when opening the car door, the phenomenon of “electric shock” also occurs in some daily activities such as removing clothes, brushing hair with a plastic comb…
Reader Linda asked: I know that the tingling sensation when opening a car door on a winter morning isn’t dangerous, but I find the crackling sound a bit scary, and I wonder if it’s due to electrical leakage?
Answer:
According to scientific explanation, the tingling sensation when touching the car body in cold weather is due to static electricity – the phenomenon of imbalance of charges on the surface of a material. It’s not caused by electrical leakage in the car.
Static electricity is generated when two surfaces come into contact with each other and then separate, and at least one of these surfaces has high electrical resistance.
When two materials come into contact with each other, the charge on the surface will transfer from one material to the other, resulting in an excess of positive charge on one material and an excess of negative charge on the other. When the materials separate, the imbalance of electric charge is maintained.
During winter, in dry weather conditions, metal and plastic surfaces will generate negative charges, while the free charge generated from the human body is positive, so contact inadvertently creates a phenomenon of discharging electricity and emits a crackling sound.
This phenomenon also occurs in daily activities such as when wearing or removing clothes, brushing hair with a plastic comb, or using a blanket…
Because static electricity occurs when the air lacks moisture to maintain the balance of positive and negative charges, to limit the phenomenon of “electric shock” in dry weather conditions, we should wear clothes made of cotton, leather shoes instead of rubber-soled shoes.
Additionally, regularly applying moisturizer to increase skin moisture is recommended.
Wearing gloves or using a cloth, paper when opening the car door can help limit the phenomenon of “electric shock.
