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I have been reading about the Faraday cages in the last couple of days.

My learning raised another questions about charge accumulation on a car frame.

Air friction can raise the amount of charge on the frame surface acting like a Faraday cage. That charge can evacuate by giving a shock when someone touches it.

However, if no one touches for a very long time after it accumulated charges, will it remain there so anyone who touches it will finally unload the car charge by getting a shock or will it discharge in another way?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Black rubber tires have too low resisance to ground for that to be an issue. \$\endgroup\$
    – winny
    Commented May 19, 2020 at 13:29
  • \$\begingroup\$ All imbalances charge will eventually equalize since no perfect insulators exist (unless maybe floating in a vacuum). It's just a matter of how long. Everything also becomes a conductor at high enough voltage so if you keep accumulating charge faster than it can dissipate, eventually it will arc somewhere to equalize. \$\endgroup\$
    – DKNguyen
    Commented May 19, 2020 at 13:33
  • \$\begingroup\$ oh so it can go through tire? so any insulation over a period of time allows charge to leak? I yes you can post it as an answer, it definitely enlightens me to something I didn't know!! \$\endgroup\$
    – Cherry
    Commented May 19, 2020 at 13:35
  • \$\begingroup\$ Tires use carbon black. That's why they are black. Carbon = conductive \$\endgroup\$
    – DKNguyen
    Commented May 19, 2020 at 13:36
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    \$\begingroup\$ see this electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/477807/… \$\endgroup\$
    – DKNguyen
    Commented May 19, 2020 at 13:54

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All charge imbalances will eventually equalize since no perfect insulators exist (unless maybe floating in a vacuum). It's just a matter of how long. Everything also becomes a conductor at high enough voltage so if you keep accumulating charge faster than it can dissipate, eventually the potential difference between it and the next nearest thing in the universe will become high enough to arc to it in order to equalize, whether it be air or vacuum, if something doesn't touch it first.

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