Question

When charges do not flow, the electricity is called_______. Fill in the blank.

Answer 1

Hint: We need to know how electricity is produced. Major reason for electricity generation is the flow of charges in an object. If charges do not flow the electricity produced is called by another term, static electricity.

Complete answer:
Have you ever observed your hair stand when you take off your cap? Or have you observed that when a balloon is rubbed against your clothes it sticks to the wall for sometime? I’m sure many answers would be yes. But do you know why this happens? Let us now know why.
 We need to have a basic idea about what is electricity and what is static electricity. Let’s look at their definitions. Electricity is defined as flow of charges, and static electricity is defined as a stationary electric charge produced by friction.
 Electricity is produced by flow of charges. We know that charges can be positive or negative. They also consist of small charge carriers called electrons(- ), protons(+) and neutrons which are neutral. Thus for the generation of electricity we need to move or displace the electrons from its original site.
Hence when the charges do not flow through the object there is an imbalance between the positive and negative charges and static charge builds up. Now that is the reason why your hair stands when you take off your cap and why a balloon is rubbed against your clothes and sticks to the wall for sometime.
Thus the answer to this question is: When charges do not flow, the electricity is called Static electricity.

Note: Static electricity is the only answer here as no other electricity is produced when there is no flow of charges. Static electricity can be mild in some cases like raising of our hair, but can be very dangerous in many cases. It can cause very painful shocks. It also builds up in clouds due to which lightning takes place.